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The Waiting Game
Access to Medical Specialists in Canada By Jamie Moore
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Mike Bailey didn't think much of injuring his knee during a badminton game until months later when it began affecting his ability to drive. Bailey, of Parksville, B.C., works in the logging industry on Vancouver Island, often traveling several miles every day between sites to oversee operations. He got worried when his knee started locking up in the driver's seat, and a painful roadside stretch was his only reprieve. Bailey's family doctor referred him to a specialist, but the wait would be four and a half months.
That's not so out of the ordinary in Canada. During 2001 and 2002, the median wait between family practitioner and specialist for orthopedic surgery was 12.7 weeks, according to The Fraser Institute's annual survey Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada. Although waits for radiation and medical oncology physicians were far shorter, the overall median wait for a specialist in any field is 7.3 weeks, nearly twice what it was in 1993.
Pain or illness becomes part of daily life for many Canadians while they wait to see a specialist. In Saskatchewan or British Columbia, chances are better you'll have a shorter wait time (5.7 and 6.7 weeks, respectively) than in New Brunswick or Alberta (10.2 and 9.3 weeks, respectively), the survey says.
How do specialists prioritize their patients? And why are the waits so long? Here's a look at the problem, why it's chronic and what physicians and other groups are doing to help remedy the situation.
Marrion Barnes of London, Ontario was high on the priority list. Her primary physician found cancerous cells after running several tests, which catapulted her to the acute category. The quickest she could see an oncologist, by referral of her physician, was six weeks. Although she'd hoped to get in sooner, she felt fortunate not to wait as long as other patients she knew. "I was one of those lucky ones who got in pretty quick," she says. "When my husband was seeing specialists for his heart condition, we got shuffled around quite a bit. It's frustrating."
Where does that leave folks like Bailey on the priority list? He didn't wait around to find out. Instead, he called the specialist directly and offered to pay cash for his appointment if he could get in sooner. It worked. He was scheduled for the following week. In some stroke of suave and luck, Bailey never had to pay out of his own pocket. The specialist's office forwarded the bill to B.C. Medical.