Niagara Health officials think they could eliminate the local surgery backlog by early 2021.
Clinical services executive vice president and chief nursing executive Derek McNally says thousands of procedures were cancelled during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The modelling that we've done with our surgical program senior folks tells us we will probably be caught up with the backlog by the end of our fiscal year which is March 31st, 2021.
McNally says since Niagara Health started rescheduling delayed procedures on May 25th, staff have completed 4,200 elective surgeries and 70,000 diagnostic imaging tests.
Modelling research published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal yesterday suggested it could take just over a year and a half before the provincial backlog is cleared.