How to shorten hospital wait times in Canada
Long wait times are the vulnerable soft underbelly of the Canadian health system.
Canadians treasure our single-payer, publicly-funded program of physician and hospital care, virtually as a defining part of our national identity. And yet, increasing legal and political pressure over quick access to elective surgeries – cataract extraction and joint replacement, for example – threaten to undermine that support.
The Commonwealth Fund 2017 report ranked Canada last among 11 countries in timeliness of care.
And a case before the British Columbia Supreme Court aims to topple provincial regulations that limit private payment for medically necessary services, claiming that surgical wait times for elective procedures such as arthroscopic knee surgery violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.