Score Card: Canada's Universal Health Care

Median wait time by province in 2016:

• New Brunswick: 38.8 weeks
• Nova Scotia: 34. 8
• P.E.I: 31.4
• Newfoundland and Labrador: 26
• British Columbia: 25.2
• Alberta: 22.9
• Manitoba: 20.6
• Quebec: 18.9
• Saskatchewan: 16.6
• Ontario: 15.6

In terms of specialized treatment, national wait times were longest for neurosurgery (46.9 weeks) and shortest for medical oncology (3.7 weeks).

• Neurosurgery: 46.9 weeks
• Orthopaedic surgery: 38
• Ophthalmology: 28.5
• Plastic Surgery: 25.9
• Otolaryngology: 22.7
• Gynaecology: 18.8
• Urology: 16.2
• Internal medicine: 12.9
• Radiation oncology: 4.1
• General surgery: 12.1
• Cardiovascular: 8.4
• Medical oncology: 3.7

CTV National News: Lives in limbo

Canada has a very good universal health care system. No matter in which province they live Canadians can expect to receive excellent treatment. As long as they're in no sweat to hurry along surgical dates, that is. As good as the system is -- and it certainly is good -- it is plagued with too-long wait times. And that certainly diminishes the plaudits that the system otherwise deserves. Under this system, it doesn't matter whether someone is on welfare, has a low-wage job, or is wealthy with contacts in the health community, or a physician themselves, in theory everyone is treated equally.

But despite this, in 2016, roughly 53,459 Canadians travelled outside Canada to receive their non-emergency medical treatment, according to data produced by the Fraser Institute's "Waiting Your Turn" survey of physicians, and through information provided by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, tracking numbers of surgical procedures performed in the country. British Columbia's proportion of residents who sought care abroad was the highest of the provinces at 2.4 percent.

Ontario, with its thirteen-and-a-half million residents representing the largest provincial population, saw an estimated 26,523 people choose to go abroad for medical treatment. Among all medical specialties disorders of the ear, nose and throat represented the highest number of patients seeking treatment outside the country, with 2.1 percent travelling for treatment abroad. Neurosurgical treatment followed closely behind with 1.9 percent making that medical trip abroad.

The reasons are numerous, with some people seeking treatment elsewhere than in Canada resulting from a dearth of available resources within the country (shortage of specialists, shortage of hospital operating rooms, shortage of time allocated per specialist, etc.) as well as the fact that some medical procedures are not available in patients' home provinces. In other instances, patients may seek to gain access to more advanced health-care technologies not yet available in Canada, at state-of-the-art medical facilities located elsewhere.

But the likeliest most common reason is precisely because many people decide that the wait time for their particular surgery is too long. In some instances there are consequences of waiting too long for the surgical intervention some patients require; their condition may continue to deteriorate, and they may face disability, and in some cases, possibly death. Timelier treatment may realize a faster turnaround, enabling the patient to return to their normal life more expeditiously, and no one can be faulted for wishing that outcome for themselves.

When patients are referred to medical specialists by their general practitioner following a diagnosis, there is invariably a long wait time before that vital appointment can be arranged. The Fraser Institute estimated recently that long wait times for surgery and medical treatment come with a cost; over $1.7-billion, amounting to an estimated $1,759 per patient realized in lost wages and time on an annual basis. Factoring in not just loss during the work week the waiting cost leaps from $1.7-billion to $5.2-billion, amounting to around $5,360 per patient.

Clearly, an untenable situation. But one which sees no readily applicable solution around the corner.

Canadian Wait Times (in weeks)

GP TO SPECIALIST -- SPECIALIST TO TREATMENT

BC

10.7

14.5

AB

10.2

12.7

SK

8.7

7.9

MB

8.9

11.7

ON

7.2

8.4

QC

9.9

8.9

NB

21.5

17.4

NS

17.1

17.7

PE

20.9

10.5

NL

14.5

11.5

CANADA

9.4

10.6

Source: Fraser Institute 

Chair of the advocacy group Patients Canada, Michael Decter insists that a larger funding formula would solve nothing. He points to the fact that wait times have increased rather than decreased despite the fact that the federal government has steadily increased health transfers to provinces by six percent annually for over a decade. "It’s about innovation, it’s about accountability, it’s about focus and it’s about transparency. It’s not about more money", he stresses.

He offers the opinion that provincial plans should be responsible for a "safety guarantee", a scenario whereby provincial health plans would pay for their residents whose long wait times for surgeries force them to seek the opportunity elsewhere to have their surgeries conducted in other provinces or outside the country where more acceptable wait times prevail. That, he says, "frankly frightens and offends man people who manage the health care system (but) is actually a very good idea."

Operating theatre