Median wait time for patients to get treatment up to 20 weeks, report finds

TORONTO — A new report by the Fraser Institute says Canadians had a median wait time of 20 weeks this year for medical treatment — the longest yet recorded by the independent public-policy think tank.

The Fraser Institute says that 20-week wait time is double what Canadians experienced in 1993, when the organization began tracking delays for medically necessary elective treatments. 

The study is based on a national survey of doctors and looks at total wait times across 12 specialties, from referral by a general practitioner, to consultation with a specialist, and then to the point of treatment.

Ontario recorded the shortest wait time at 15.6 weeks, up from just over 14 weeks in 2015, while New Brunswick recorded the longest wait time at almost 39 weeks.

For the fourth year in a row, British Columbia recorded an increase in wait times with the median now sitting at 25.2 weeks — the longest ever measured in that province.

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Among the various specialties, national wait times were longest for neurosurgery at almost 47 weeks and shortest for medical oncology at just under four weeks.

“Excessively long wait times remain a defining characteristic of Canada’s health-care system, but this year is the longest we’ve ever seen and that should trouble all Canadians,” Bacchus Barua, senior economist for health-care studies at the Fraser Institute, said in a statement.

It’s estimated that Canadians are currently waiting for nearly one million medically necessary procedures. Physicians report that their patients are waiting more than three weeks longer for treatment, after seeing a specialist, than what they consider to be clinically reasonable, the report says.

“Long wait times aren’t simply minor inconveniences, they can result in increased suffering for patients, lost productivity at work, a decreased quality of life, and in the worst cases, disability or death,” Barua said.

“The experiences of other countries prove that long waits for treatment aren’t a necessary byproduct of a universal health-care system,” he said. “It’s time for policy makers to consider reforming the outdated policies that contribute to long wait times in Canada.”

The Canadian Press