York hospitals meet or exceed Ontario wait time targets

Long wait times take toll on Canada's economy, study shows

YorkRegion.com
March 25, 2014
By Sean Pearce

They say time is money and if a new study out of the Fraser Institute is any indication, Canadians are spending a lot of both waiting for health care.

According to the study, dubbed The Private Cost of Public Queues for Medically Necessary Care, Canadians lost a combined $1.1 billion, or an average of $1,202 per patient, waiting for needed health care last year. The document, authored by the Fraser Institute’s director of health policy studies, Nadeem Esmail, arrived at the figures by calculating the average value of lost time during the work week for the more than 928,000 Canadian patients waiting for surgery in 2013.

What’s more, the total soars to $3.4 billion, or $3,681 per patient, if the calculations factor in time outside the work week such as evenings and weekends and excluding eight hours of sleep.

In York Region, our three hospitals, Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Mackenzie Health in Richmond Hill and Markham Souffville Hospital, boast wait times that are meeting or exceeding the provincial targets and Ontario averages, according to statistics released last summer.

The average wait for general surgeries in Ontario was 104 days compared to 67 days at Southlake, 117 days at Mackenzie Health and 86 days at Markham Stouffville Hospital. The target is 182 days and is being achieved 98 per cent of the time, according to figures from the province.

The provincial target for cancer surgeries in Ontario is 84 days and is being met 98 per cent of the time the province says. The average wait in Ontario is 49 days, whereas the actual waits are 45 days at Southlake, 44 days at Mackenzie Health and 28 days at Markham Stouffville Hospital.

“The negative impact of wait times on the productivity of patients and their ability to participate fully in life is an issue too often ignored in the health care debate,” Mr. Esmail said. “Reduced productivity in the workplace or reduced ability to engage with family and friends, may impact family income and increase stress for Canadian patients.”

Canadians are waiting longer for health care, Mr. Esmail said, and will, thus, face additional losses in productivity.

And while some improvement in wait times and the costs associated with them was witnessed between 2004 and 2009, both the waits and the costs have risen since then, according to Mr. Esmail. As such, the cost of waiting is up 2 per cent, after inflation, compared to a decade ago, he said.

“Without sensible health policy reform, waiting will remain a defining characteristic of the Canadian health care experience, and delays, while negatively impacting the health and well-being of patients, will also continue to rob patients of valuable time,” he added.

The good news is that Ontario patients face the lowest private costs associated with waiting, at $867 per patient, while Quebec is second at $1,079 per patient. Coming in last is Saskatchewan where lengthy waits cost about $2,022 per patient.

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, an organization established in 1994 dedicated collecting and analysing heath care data from across the country, Ontario has one of the shortest wait times compared to other provinces.

The federal benchmark for knee replacement surgery - a procedure with one of the longest wait times - is 182 days.

In 2012, residents in British Columbia waited 253 days for knee replacement surgery, compared to 301 days in Alberta, 420 days in Saskatchewan, 397 in Manitoba, 253 days in Quebec, 340 days in New Brunswick, 557 days in Nova Scotia, 362 days in Prince Edward Island and 250 days in Newfoundland and Labrador. However, in Ontario the wait was 226 days.

Hospitals within York Region are operating with the 182-day target and the average wait time between the three regional hospitals is about 172 days.