Thursday, March 13, 2014

Wait your turn

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders brought Canadian health expert to town, hoping to boost his side.
You have plenty of time to think up one-liners when patients wait 18 weeks for an appointment.
In the Fraser Institute's annual report, “Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada,” published October, 28, 2013, the wait-time for in 2013 rose to 18.2 weeks, three days longer than in 2012. Twenty years ago, the average wait time for treatment in Canada was 9.3 weeks. In the report, specific scenarios were described, such as waits to have surgery, now reaching over 39 weeks, to appointments for neurological consults, now an average of 17.4 weeks. Thankfully, the shortest wait-time was for cancer patients needing treatment, now only 3,5 weeks.
The report also estimates that on average, one out of every 34 Canadians “may be in pain, off work, or suffering from depression as they wait their turn for treatment.”

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