THE CANADIAN STATE

National Post - September 25, 2001
Hospital waiting lists up 24% in a year: study: Average hits 16.2 weeks: Longest queues in Saskatchewan, shortest in Ontario
By Tom Arnold

Despite substantial increases in federal spending on health care, hospital waiting lists across Canada have grown by 23.7% in the past year, a new study concludes. Total waiting time for patients between referral from a general practitioner to receiving treatment rose from 13.1 weeks in 1999 to 16.2 weeks in 2000-01, according to the Fraser Institute's 11th annual survey, which is to be released today. An estimated 878,088 Canadians were waiting for treatment in 2000-01, it found. Only Saskatchewan and Newfoundland saw no increase in waits.

The report concludes that waiting times in Canada are 69% higher today than in 1993. "This grim portrait is the legacy of a medical system offering low expectations cloaked in lofty rhetoric," the report concludes. It says the "prospects for improvement are dim" and "only substantial reform ... will alleviate the medical system's most curable disease."

Dr. Michael Walker, executive director of the Vancouver-based institute, said in an interview: "We had this mythology that Canada had the best health care system in the world and the reality is that over the last decade there has been this continuous erosion of the quality of health care."

Ontario achieved the shortest total wait in 2000-01 at 13.9 weeks. Newfoundland (14.6 weeks) and Prince Edward Island (15.0 weeks) were the next shortest. Despite improvement, Saskatchewan had the longest total wait at 28.9 weeks. The next longest waits were in New Brunswick (25.8 weeks) and British Columbia (18.9 weeks). Specialists surveyed for the report said patients are waiting too long for treatment. In 86% of the 121 medical categories studied, specialists said waiting times exceeded that which is "reasonable."

The rise is mainly because of a dramatic increase in the time between referral from a GP and consultation with a specialist, the report concludes. This component increased from 4.9 weeks in 1999 to 7.2 weeks in 2000-01, a hike of 46.9%. The shortest waits for specialist consultations were in Prince Edward Island (6.3 weeks), Saskatchewan (6.3 weeks) and British Columbia (6.5 weeks). The longest waits for specialist consultations were in New Brunswick (16.2 weeks), Nova Scotia (8.8 weeks) and Alberta (7.9 weeks).

The report found that the second stage of waiting - time between a specialist consultation and receiving treatment - also increased across the country, rising from 8.2 to nine weeks, an increase of 9.8%. However, significant decreases in Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island disguise hikes in the other provinces. The shortest specialist-to-treatment waits were found in Ontario (seven weeks), Nova Scotia (7.8 weeks) and Newfoundland (eight weeks), while the longest such waits existed in Saskatchewan (22.6 weeks), British Columbia (12.3 weeks) and New Brunswick (9.6 weeks).

Among the various specialties, the shortest total waits were for medical oncology services, radiation oncology and general surgery. Patients waited longest for such services as ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery and plastic surgery. However, waiting times dropped for treatment in otolaryngology, urology, gynecology, orthopedic surgery and radiation oncology. The report found that Canadian patients also experienced significant waiting times for CAT scans, MRI screenings and ultrasound scans.

About 2,518 specialists across Canada were questioned to compile the survey.

Dr. Walker said reasons for the longer waits include new health funding diverted to medical areas other than patient care, outdated medical equipment and higher salaries for non-medical personnel in hospitals, such as painters, electricians and service industry employees. "Provinces that spend more dough on health care do not get any more medical output for it," Dr. Walker said. Expanding private health care could make a difference, he added.

Details of the report, entitled Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada, can be viewed at the institute's Web site, www.fraserinstitute.ca.