Minister of Health
Posted on 09/19/2002 5:01:13 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Canadians are waiting longer than ever for medical treatment, a new national study concludes.
In its 12th annual survey assessing total hospital wait times across Canada, the Fraser Institute found that the total waiting time for patients between receiving a referral from a general practitioner to undergoing treatment averaged 16.5 weeks in 2001-2002. The time is an average measured across a spectrum of 12 specialties in all 10 provinces.
The report says an estimated 1,094,264 Canadians waited for treatment in 2001-2002, up from 878,088 patients the year before.
While the increase is marginal over 2000-2001's average wait of 16.2 weeks, hospital waiting times are up 77% since 1993, the research notes.
"This grim portrait is the legacy of a medical system offering low expectations cloaked in lofty rhetoric," the report concludes, adding "the prospects for improvement are dim."
"Only substantial reform of that regime is likely to alleviate the medical system's most curable disease -- longer and longer waiting times for medical treatment."
"Certainly we are dismayed by any increase when it comes to access to necessary health care," said Dr. Dana Hanson, president of the Canadian Medical Association, which represents 53,000 physicians. "What it is is a symptom of the pressure that the whole system is under."
The study, titled Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada, is to be released today. It points out increases in seven of 10 provinces. There were decreases in British Columbia, Quebec and New Brunswick.
Ontario had the shortest total wait of 14 weeks, followed by Prince Edward Island at 15.1 weeks and Quebec at 16 weeks.
Saskatchewan had the longest waiting lists, with residents there waiting on average 32.6 weeks, or roughly eight months. Despite improvements this year, the next-longest waits were in New Brunswick at 19.7 weeks and British Columbia at 18.3 weeks, or more than four months.
"The increase may not be large but it is continuing to grow and waiting times are now 77% longer than they were in 1993," Michael Walker, executive director of the Fraser Institute, said yesterday in an interview.
The report notes Canadians wait longer for cardiac treatment than Americans, Germans and Swedes, although not as long as New Zealanders or the British.
In its recent brief to the Royal Commission of the Future of Care in Canada, chaired by Roy Romanow, the former premier of Saskatchewan, the CMA said this problem could be solved with the establishment of minimum national standards for access to care. It said Canadians need to be offered a "safety valve" or guarantee that if a person has to wait too long, they can go outside their province or even the country to receive treatment.
"There is no doubt that the [waiting] lists are there and anecdotally they are increasing," Dr. Hanson added yesterday. "I am dismayed, but not surprised. We know it is a problem."
The report found the rise in waiting time between 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 is because of increases in the first wait, between visiting a general practitioner and attending a consultation with a specialist, and the second wait between the consultation and actually receiving treatment.
Among the various specialists, the shortest total average waits were for medical oncology (5.5 weeks), radiation oncology (8.5 weeks) and general surgery (9.4 weeks).
Patients waited longest between a GP visit and orthopedic surgery (32 weeks), plastic surgery (27.5 weeks) and ophthalmology treatment (26.6 weeks).
The survey noted a "striking increase" over 2000-2001 figures in waits for orthopedic surgery (+5.5 weeks), plastic surgery (+3.2 weeks) and gynecology (+1.7 weeks). Waiting times dropped for patients receiving treatment in neurosurgery (-3.4 weeks), ophthalmology (-1.3 weeks), internal medicine (-1 week) and radiation oncology (-0.4 weeks).
"It is the only national compilation of waiting lists, province-by-province measurement," Mr. Walker noted.
According to the research, patients also experienced "significant" waiting times for computed tomography (CAT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound scans.
The median wait across Canada for a CAT scan was 5.2 weeks. The median wait for an MRI was 12.4 weeks. The median wait for an ultrasound was 3.2 weeks.
In an accompanying survey of 2,721 specialists in Canada, physicians were asked to offer what they regarded as clinically reasonable waiting times versus actual waits for care. In 87% of the 119 categories doctors were surveyed, actual waiting time exceeded reasonable waiting time.
"We began measuring this in 1994, and we are discovering there is now a widening gap over what physicians believe is clinically reasonable time for people to wait, a time that will not have a material impact on the medical outcome, to what the real wait times are," Mr. Walker said.
This data, in addition to information from provincial health departments, Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, was used to put together the findings assessing elective surgical waits across the country.
"Certainly I think everyone would agree with them that there needs to be changes to the system," said Dr. Richard Plain, a senior health economist with the University of Alberta. "The lengthening of the lists calls for a continual examination of what is going on: Are their negative impacts on the public's health status and what steps are being taken to try to reduce those lists?"
An increase in the number of procedures for which people are waiting was recorded in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The report concludes that, overall, 3.5% of all Canadians were waiting for treatment in 2001-2002, from a low of 1.6% in Prince Edward Island to a high of 10%, or one in 10 residents, in Saskatchewan.
Last July, Statistics Canada reported that, in 2001, 23% of Canadians surveyed were waiting for specialized services -- such as an appointment with a cardiologist or a CT scan -- and reported experiencing worry, stress or pain because of the delays. The 23% figure, or 1.4 million people, accounts for about 4.5% of Canada's population.
"We believe that the problem is not that we are not spending enough money on health care," Mr. Walker said. "The problem is that we have organized health care in an ineffective way."
Mr. Walker noted the lists have being growing annually, despite substantial increases in provincial and federal health spending. He said Canada's problem of access to services will only be resolved by bringing in user fees for those who can afford them and more private care to compete with the public system.
WAIT BY SPECIALTY:
Weeks waited from referral by GP to treatment
Plastic surgery:
Wait from GP to specialist: 16.6
Wait from specialist to treatment: 10.9
Gynaecology:
Wait from GP to specialist: 8.2
Wait from specialist to treatment: 7.4
Ophthalmology:
Wait from GP to specialist: 15.8
Wait from specialist to treatment: 10.8
Otolarygology:
Wait from GP to specialist: 8.7
Wait from specialist to treatment: 5.9
General surgery:
Wait from GP to specialist: 5.4
Wait from specialist to treatment: 4.0
Neuro surgery:
Wait from GP to specialist: 7.2
Wait from specialist to treatment: 11.9
Orthopaedic surgery:
Wait from GP to specialist: 19.3
Wait from specialist to treatment: 12.7
Cardiovascular surgery (elective):
Wait from GP to specialist: 10.3
Wait from specialist to treatment: 4.0
Urology:
Wait from GP to specialist: 4.5
Wait from specialist to treatment: 6.9
Internal medicine:
Wait from GP to specialist: 5.6
Wait from specialist to treatment: 4.4
Radiation oncology:
Wait from GP to specialist: 5.9
Wait from specialist to treatment: 2.6
Medical oncology:
Wait from GP to specialist: 2.2
Wait from specialist to treatment: 3.3
Weighted median:
Wait from GP to specialist: 9.2
Wait from specialist to treatment: 7.3
WAIT BY PROVINCE:
Weeks waited from referral by GP to treatment
British Columbia:
Wait from GP to specialist: 11.6
Wait from specialist to treatment: 6.7
Alberta:
Wait from GP to specialist: 8.2
Wait from specialist to treatment: 9.3
Saskatchewan:
Wait from GP to specialist: 26.9
Wait from specialist to treatment: 5.7
Manitoba:
Wait from GP to specialist: 10.8
Wait from specialist to treatment: 7.0
Ontario:
Wait from GP to specialist: 7.0
Wait from specialist to treatment: 7.0
Quebec:
Wait from GP to specialist: 8.9
Wait from specialist to treatment: 7.1
New Brunswick:
Wait from GP to specialist: 9.5
Wait from specialist to treatment: 10.2
Nova Scotia:
Wait from GP to specialist: 9.4
Wait from specialist to treatment: 8.6
Prince Edward Island:
Wait from GP to specialist: 7.9
Wait from specialist to treatment: 7.2
Newfoundland:
Wait from GP to specialist: 8.9
Wait from specialist to treatment: 8.5
Canada:
Wait from GP to specialist: 9.2
Wait from specialist to treatment: 7.3
Source: Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada (12th Edition), the Fraser Institute, September 2002
Meanwhile, the elitist bureaucrats that administer this system are enriching themselves and their families at the expense of eveyone else's health.
Definition of socialism:low expectations cloaked in lofty rhetoricOr as Rush puts it,
"Liberalism doesn't spread wealth--it spreads misery."
Many patients with kidney problems can be helped a great deal, especially if they are referred to a nephrologist early enough.
A study showed that Canadian doctors delayed referring their patients who had signs of kidney disease, especially if the patients had a co-existing medical problem or were elderly.
Elevated levels of serum creatinine recommendations for management and referral
The virtual epidemic in Canada of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), which is increasing in prevalence by approximately 10% annually, [1,2] has made it difficult for Canadian provincial governments to provide adequate resources to meet growing needs for treatment....The potential benefits of early referral to a nephrologist include identifying and treating reversible causes of renal failure, slowing the rate of decline associated with progressive renal insufficiency and managing the multiple coexisting conditions associated with chronic renal failure
Finally, most of the physicians (62.4%) thought that dialysis was being rationed in Ontario at the time of the survey (1994; there was no rationing at that time), and even more (90.5%) predicted that rationing would occur in the future.....
No Canadian provincial ministry of health has ever called for rationing of ESRD therapy. Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia have publicly affirmed the importance of access to ESRD therapy. [4,34,35] Notwithstanding these claims, availability of dialysis in Canada has not always kept up with demonstrated need, [3] a situation that has created difficulties in fulfilling the standard of accessibility. However, perceived resource constraints must not be used by physicians to justify refusal to refer suitable candidates for dialysis.
To Canada's credit they seem to be working to solve this problem now.
I'll bet Canadian parents really love it when their child becomes (or marries) a doctor. It could be handy to have one around the house.
Definition of socialism:low expectations cloaked in lofty rhetoricI was talking to a supermarket manager, and I complained that every few years they completely reshuffle the layout of the store, jocularly accusing him of wanting me to have trouble finding things. He replied that they had to do that because there are so many new products put on the market that it gradually makes the basic organization of the store obsolete.
My response was to refer to the cheap Canadian drugs:
the government negotiates directly with the pharmaceutical corporations, and gets a price that basically covers the cost of production and distribution.Canada gets, in that respect, a great deal.
But the question is, Who pays for the development of the new drug which Canada will need in the future--needs now, but can't get for any price?
The only answer is, non-socialist consumers of pharmaceuticals. And if we don't pay for that development, it simply will not occur. The price of "progressive" government is stultification. The elimination of progress.
If you don't pay the market price in one coin, you pay it in another.
Notably in the coin of time.
Is there a shortage of health care facilities , doctors, nurses, other personnel ?
The mere fact something is government run does not explain inefficiency.
genefrom jersey. how much is health insurance running in jersey these days?
the reason ANY government operation is inefficient is because of less incentive.
yes it does. they have less incentive, ALWAYS. there's no one to take their customer(patient).
there is no one that might offer FASTER SERVICE.
the have less reason to try to MOVE FASTER AND MAKE MORE MONEY.
the government doesn't need to do a better job TO SURVIVE.
LOL! You're kidding, right?
I found this in some’s links.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.