Waiting Your Turn, Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada (14th Edition)

Waiting Your Turn, Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada (14th Edition)

Publication Date: October 2004
Publication Format: Critical Issues Bulletins

Author(s):
Nadeem Esmail, Senior Health Policy Analyst & Manager, Health Data Systems
Email: nadeeme@fraserinstitute.ca

Dr. Michael Walker, Executive Director
Email: michaelw@fraserinstitute.ca

Executive Summary:
The Fraser Institute's fourteenth annual waiting list survey found that Canada-wide waiting times for surgical and other therapeutic treatments changed very little in 2004. Total waiting time between referral from a general practitioner and treatment, averaged across all 12 specialties and 10 provinces surveyed, rose from 17.7 weeks in 2003 to 17.9 weeks in 2004. This small nationwide deterioration in access reflects waiting-time increases in 4 provinces, while concealing decreases in waiting time in Alberta, Manitoba Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.

Among the provinces, Manitoba achieved the shortest total wait in 2004, 14.8 weeks, with Ontario (15.5 weeks) losing the “best access” province status that it had held since 2000, and Alberta (17.8 weeks) next shortest. Saskatchewan exhibited the longest total wait, 33.3 weeks; the next longest waits were found in Prince Edward Island (27.4 weeks) and New Brunswick (20.9 weeks).

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