While the pandemic is now squarely behind us, Canadian governments remain unable to deliver timely access to medically necessary elective (a.k.a. scheduled) surgical care.
The 14.8-week wait between specialist to treatment is also considerably longer than what surveyed physicians consider clinically reasonable . Of course, unreasonably long waits for elective surgical care have physical and emotional consequences. In the absence of timely treatment, physical illness can progress, worsening patient health to the point of disability and even death. Patients, their families and caregivers may also experience anxiety and stress while waiting for treatment.
And crucially, neither of these estimates include the average 12.6 weeks patients waited to see a specialist last year —the cost estimates only apply to the wait between specialist appointment and treatment. In 2020, the Commonwealth Fund found that Canadians were the least likely to report a wait of less than four weeks for a specialist appointment when compared to nine other universal health-care systems. And only 62% of patients in Canada reported waiting less than four months for non-emergency surgery, a much smaller percentage than in France , Switzerland and Germany .Article content
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