Doctors Press Ottawa, Provinces on Wait-Time Guarantees

By THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA – The federal and provincial governments have to expand their campaign to cut health-care waiting times to cover more key services, says the Canadian Medical Association.

In a report released Monday, the Wait Time Alliance – a coalition of medical specialists working under the CMA umbrella – hones in on emergency-room care as one of the crucial sectors where new benchmarks are needed.

“For many Canadians emergency departments continue to be a major point of access to the health-care system, with approximately 10 million visits annually,” says the study.

“Emergency departments are frequently viewed as highly visible indicators of the state of Canada’s health system.”

Four other areas are recommended for inclusion on a priority list for reduced wait times – psychiatric care, plastic surgery for burns, infections and trauma, gatroenterology and anesthesiology.

The new areas would join five other key sectors listed under a federal-provincial deal signed in 2004, in which governments agreed to aim at “significant” wait-time reductions over a 10-year period.

The original five were: cardiac care, hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery, diagnostic imaging like CT scans and radiation oncology.

In its last report in April, the alliance noted progress in some of the original areas, but said the overall record wasn’t good enough.

The latest report notes that it’s difficult even to gather data from province to province in some of the five new sectors, because there’s no standardized reporting system across the country.

Nevertheless, it calls on governments to adopt benchmarks for “minimum acceptable” wait times in the new areas as a start toward eventual reductions.

In the five original areas set in 2004, the alliance wants the federal and provincial governments to announce detailed, multi-year plans by the end of this year.