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Surgery waiting lists are one of those stories in B.C. politics that make you feel like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day. The same story repeats itself, over and over again. It’s just that the political parties occasionally switch places.

Flash back to the 1990s when the NDP was in power. Back then, the Liberals slammed lengthy surgery waiting lists that hurt patients and wasted money.

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“Wait times have grown,” complained then-Liberal leader Gordon Campbell. “Patients who need surgery are angry and frustrated the treatment they pay for isn’t there when they need it.”

Then Campbell became premier and it was the NDP’s turn to slam him for the same thing.

“It’s cruel to patients,” said NDP MLA Adrian Dix in 2006, ripping Campbell’s Liberals for excessive waiting lists for hip and knee replacements.

Now leap ahead to today. Dix is the health minister and it’s déjà vu all over again.

“Over 91,000 British Columbians are now on the province’s record-setting waiting list for medically necessary surgeries,” Dr. Roland Orfaly, CEO of the B.C. Anesthesiologists Society, wrote in a Vancouver Sun editorial this week. “Over the last year and a half, the number of people waiting for surgery has increased from 85,468 to 91,150.”