Fraser Institute Says Health Care Wait List Longer Than Ever
By 250 News
Wait times for Canadians needing surgery hit an all time high of more than 18 weeks in 2007, that's according to the Fraser Institute.
The report released today indicates a typical Canadian seeking surgical or other therapeutic treatment had to wait 18.3 weeks in 2007, an all-time high..
“Despite government promises and the billions of dollars funneled into the Canadian health care system, the average patient waited more than 18 weeks in 2007 between seeing their family doctor and receiving the surgery or treatment they required,” said Nadeem Esmail, Director of Health System Performance Studies at The Fraser Institute and co-author of the 17th annual edition of Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada.
The survey measures median waiting times to document the extent to which queues for visits to specialists and for diagnostic and surgical procedures are used to control health care expenditures.
The 2007 survey found the total median waiting time for patients between referral from a general practitioner and treatment, averaged across all 12 specialties and 10 provinces surveyed, increased to 18.3 weeks from 17.8 weeks observed in 2006. This is primarily due to an increase in the "first wait" which is the time between seeing the general practitioner and the first visit with a specialist. British Columbia was among the provinces which had the shortest wait between referral and actual visit (8.8 weeks).
The complete report along with charts showing wait times for all provinces is available at www.fraserinstitute.org and the detailed pages and charts for B.C. can be accessed by clicking here.
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Posted by: Andyfreeze on October 15 2007 12:13 PM
The longest wait list in the province is that of Dr Amson in Victoria. He has 683 patients waiting for surgery, and his median wait time after seeing him for the first time is over 70 weeks, and it takes a year to get to see him the first time. In actual experience most of his patients wait four to five years for surgery that can stop them having heart attacks and strokes, and improves their life experience.
He does bariatric surgery, and is the only surgeon in BC doing it. He does an operation called the Roux-en-Y, which involves making the stomach smaller and rerouting the small intestine. It is done for people who are morbidly obese, not just overweight and is a last resort for them, usually. The operation has a reputation for being effective and safe (unlike the older operations no longer done).
Having to wait five years for this is a disgrace!