Studies in
HEALTH POLICY
December 2012
Waiting Your Turn
Wait Times for Health Care in Canada
2012 Report
by Bacchus Barua and Nadeem Esmail
Key findings
Specialist physicians surveyed across 12 specialties and 10
Canadian provinces report a total waiting time of 17.7 weeks
between referral from a general practitioner and elective
treatment in 2012.
Patients in Ontario experience the shortest wait (14.9 weeks)
followed by Quebec (16.6 weeks), and British Columbia (17.0 weeks).
Patients wait longest for orthopaedic surgery (39.6 weeks)
and wait least for medical oncology treatment (4.1 weeks).
After an appointment with a specialist, Canadians wait
approximately 3 weeks longer than what physicians believe
is “reasonable” for elective treatment.
In 2012, throughout the provinces people are waiting for an
estimated 870,462 procedures. Assuming that each person
waits for only one procedure, 2.5 percent of Canadians are
waiting for treatment.
Only 10.3 percent of patients are on waiting lists because
they requested a delay or postponement.
http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploa...-turn-2012.pdf
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