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The Waiting Game
Access to Medical Specialists in Canada By Jamie Moore
Unfortunately, waiting list development and management varies from doctor to doctor and hospital to hospital. Coordination efforts are few. Smaller pools of doctors typically mean longer waits for patients. In the 1998 report Waiting Lists and Waiting Times for Health Care in Canada, Health Canada identified this shortfall and stressed the need to integrate and prioritize lists regionally and provincially, but the idea hasn't caught on as quickly as many would like.
"An organized, integrated approach is necessary," says Sharon Sholzberg-Gray, president and CEO of the Canadian Healthcare Association advocacy group. "Since not every specialist is part of a larger system, some patients are on three or four sets of waiting lists to hedge their bets."
Another flaw with the lists: They're based on vague (if any) criteria to determine who's at the front of the line. So the length of the wait doesn't always correspond with the severity of conditions. You might be assigned to one of a few broad categories, such as "urgent," "semi-urgent" and "elective." Within each category, you'd be prioritized by when you entered the line-up, according to the Western Canada Waiting List Project (WCWL)