So, these assertions that folks make (U.S. citizens) stating rather unequivocally that Canadians are coming to the U.S. in droves because they're tired of waiting for treatment are....? Untrue, perhaps?
My assertions about Canadian News Papers is they are lying about their own Health Care System according to some people here...
No progress in wait times for health care in Canada: report
Only bright note: Quebec did better than average for two procedures
(FYI... Is Radiation Treatment / Cataract Surgery in the U.S. considered Sub par to Canada?)
(Refer to highlighted and Italic underlined statements)
Despite pan-Canadian slippage in wait times, Quebec did better than average, earning top marks this year for two procedures. Quebec got an A+ for radiation treatment and an A for cataract surgery. It also earned a B for hip and knee joint replacement. There is no provincial data for heart surgery or diagnostic imaging such as CT scans and MRIs.
Photograph by: Phil Carpenter
The Gazette (MontrealGazette.com)
MONTREAL -
Despite government attempts to reduce delays, wait times for access to care have stagnated or worsened, the Wait Time Alliance says in its eighth report card.
The annual report card, issued Tuesday, is a snapshot of how long Canadians wait for a broad range of medical procedures and services within the context of a $5.5-billion federal fund to reduce wait times, set up in 2004 and to be distributed until 2014.
Despite some improvements, the report says, national results show few signs of progress and significant variations remain among provinces and regions.
"Not only has there been no progress over the last year in wait times in any of the five priority areas, in many instances Canadians are waiting longer now than they were two years ago," said cardiologist Chris Simpson, chair of the watchdog group.
"Progress has stalled."
The five areas identified as priorities by federal, provincial and territorial governments under the 2004 Health Accord are: diagnostic imaging, joint replacement, heart bypass, radiation oncology and cataract surgery.
The report assesses the length of time from when a patient sees a specialist to the time of treatment. But waits to see a physician or consulting specialist are not included. "Taken together, these can add up to very long waits," Simpson said.
But despite a drop in performance across Canada in meeting government-approved benchmarks for wait times, Quebec did better than average for the second year in a row, earning top marks this year for two procedures. Quebec got an A+ for radiation treatment and an A for cataract surgery. It also earned a B for hip and knee joint replacement.
There is no provincial data for time to heart surgery or national data for benchmarks on wait times for diagnostic imaging such as CT scans and MRIs.
As the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) recently reported, an increasing number of surgeries are being done in areas targeted by the accord, but wait times are failing to improve.
"It would appear that demand is rising at a rate that is outpacing the ability of health systems to keep up," CIHI reported.
Part of the problem, as cited in the 2011 alliance report, remains blocked hospital beds. These beds are often filled by patients waiting for home care, long-term-care, or rehabilitation services in other institutions.
A significant number of patients waiting in hospitals who would ideally be receiving care elsewhere, threatens to overwhelm the health-care system, the report said.
Whether cuts in hospital budgets will affect wait times and patient care is difficult to say, Simpson said.
For example, McGill University Health Centre has to cut $50 million to meet a provincial government-imposed deadline to balance its books by 2015, and eliminating some nursing jobs will be part of the cuts.
"My instinct is that quality of care doesn't suffer. But there is a concern that it will have an adverse impact. There's room for more efficiency and doing things better. But these (cuts) are not major drivers of wait times in Canada," he said.
Rather than throwing more money at the health system, provincial governments need to implement structural changes to overcome wait time stagnation, the report urges.
"Additional funding cannot be the sole solution," Simpson said. "It's a short-term fix and when the money disappears, the system reverts to its former state."
This year's report also highlights the impact of socio-economic status or social determinants — income, housing, education, gender — on access to health care. It's clear, Simpson said, that lower-income individuals have problems finding a physician and accessing care.
What's needed is a major overhaul, for example, reorganizing hospital funding based on the number of procedures performed. Some hospitals in Ontario and Alberta have already moved toward such activity-based funding.
"It's fair to say that there is some innovative stuff happening across the country," he said. "And I am hopeful we'll see that translated into real outcomes in the coming years."
But Canada remains a nation of "pilot projects," Simpson said. "The fact that we have 14 medical systems in Canada, one health care system for every province and territory ... leads us to miss a lot of opportunities for coordinating, standardizing, (and) we're forever reinventing the wheel on all sorts of innovative practices."
Created in 2004 to provide governments with advice from the physicians' perspective on medically acceptable wait-time benchmarks, the Wait Time Alliance includes the Canadian Medical Association and 13 other national organizations that represent experts such as radiation oncologists, emergency physicians, pediatric surgeons and cardiovascular specialists.
The alliance is calling for national wait-time benchmarks or targets for health services beyond the initial five areas agreed upon during the 2004 Accord.
