Report: Wait Times at Hospitals Across Canada Worsening

[cybercoma]

The Wait Times Alliance has issued its annual report (link just below What's New banner) on hospital wait times across the country.

-Some provinces show improvement, but overall wait times are worsening.

-Even in provinces that are doing well, there may be significant difference between regions within the province.

-MB, PE, and NL are amongst the worst provinces for wait times, while AB and ON provide the quickest care.

-MB has seen increases in wait times for many different procedures over the previous year.

-AB has seen decreases in wait times over the previous year.

-Wait times in ON largely remain the same.

[Michael Hardner]

Thanks for posting this.

Important to note that Ontario's PM Dalton McGuinty made Wait Times a mainstay of his election platform for his first term. Nobody is asking about eHealth these days, or asking how much effort/resources have been spent keeping wait times stagnant.

[cybercoma]

Thanks for posting this.

Important to note that Ontario's PM Dalton McGuinty made Wait Times a mainstay of his election platform for his first term. Nobody is asking about eHealth these days, or asking how much effort/resources have been spent keeping wait times stagnant.

Maintaining the wait times in Ontario is quite the accomplishment considering they have actually increased overall across the country.

[Topaz]

What could make matters worse, the the A/T's cutting health care money after 2017 down to 3% to provinces. One could only imagine why they are doing this, one, to bring in more private care when things get so slow that the only answer is to have private health care centres across Canada, which brings into question, how many middle and low class citizens are going to be able to afford health care IF this happens? Although, all this could be for nothing if in 2015, the A/T's are voted out of power.

[cybercoma]

A/Ts?

[bjre]

The problem is due to monopoly. Canada is a nation of monopoly. Too many jobs need a license. That is the way our tax dollars goes to small interest groups and make the labor price highest in the world. Government takes money from us, Banks takes money from us, Insurance Companies takes money from us, everyone who do real work that create real value suffer from all those.

Health system is one of those who ridiculously takes money from us.

Ontario has 8.76 million people, the health system takes us $48 billion health budget, that is $5479 from everybody no matter if you ill or not.

$11 billion payed to 25000 doctors, that's 440k for each doctor, how much mayor Ford get payed for a year?

Others profits to various interest groups.

The problem is easy to solve. Abolish doctor's license, Anyone can be a doctor, Anyone can choose doctor who himself trust. Any doctor make an severer accident should go to jail and not be a doctor again.

That will solve the problem.

The McGuinty Government's budget plans for your Doctor and you........

http://www.auroraclicks.com/articles.php?id=9007

So what's the issue, and how did we end up here ? In an attempt to make up for years of reckless spending, the McGuinty government is now desperate to find a way to work its way out of a fiscal mess. The $48 billion health budget is in its sights, and the $11 billion it pays to doctors as part of that, is in the cross hairs.

There are more than 25,000 doctors in Ontario. About 95 percent of doctors bill OHIP for each service performed on what is known as a fee-for-service billing system. This represents about

$8 billion out of the $11 billion paid to doctors. $1.9 billion is paid to doctors through what is known as "primary care group payments" which now includes more than two-thirds of family doctors who practice in one of 14 different primary care models and an additional $1billion is paid through "alternative payment programs". These consist of about 250 agreements with 6,500 physicians who receive payments through a number of arrangements depending on their specialty of practice.

The "schedule of benefits" for fee for service payments, contains more than 8,000 different fee codes that range from office visits to trauma care. Any changes to this fee schedule have always been negotiated between the province and the Ontario Medical Association. This time however, Health Minister Deb Mathews short-circuited the negotiations and unilaterally announced cuts of $338 million to the fee schedule. In the wake of that arbitrary move by the government, doctors are just coming to grips with what the impact will be on their patients and on their practices.

[guyser]

The problem is due to monopoly.

Too many jobs need a license.

..make the labor price highest in the world.

Health system is one of those who ridiculously takes money from us.

how much mayor Ford get payed for a year?

Abolish doctor's license, Anyone can be a doctor, That will solve the problem.

If you cannot identify the problem, then dont issue BS solutions that have nothing to do with the problem.

Mayor Ford = Dr ?...um yeah , maybe a Doctorate of Stupidity but nothing more substantial.

Edited June 19, 2012 by guyser

[Guest Manny]

If you cannot identify the problem, then dont issue BS solutions that have nothing to do with the problem.

Mayor Ford = Dr ?...um yeah , maybe a Doctorate of Stupidity but nothing more substantial.

I think he might mean that doctors shouldn't get more money than the mayor. Other than that, I suspect you need brain surgery, guyser. No need to wait, allow me. I'm pretty good with a hacksaw.

Edited June 19, 2012 by Manny

[guyser]

Other than that, I suspect you need brain surgery, guyser. No need to wait, allow me. I'm pretty good with a hacksaw.

A hacksaw? What..no chainsaw? Its faster.

Do I get a lil rum first?

[dre]

A hacksaw? What..no chainsaw? Its faster.

Do I get a lil rum first?

bjre would take things way to far but he does have a point. There is such a thing as having standards that are too high and a certification regime that is too burdensome, just like you can have standards that are too low.

Theres is no point in having standards that are so high, and a certification regime that is so ownerous that you have a big problem with scarcity. Imagine if our standards were so high that only the best 10 doctors on the planet qualified? We would be dying on the streets by the millions and nobody would get any care.

You are better off having higher malpractice rates than bankrupting the country with unchecked costs, or creating scarcity so that some people cant get care.

Edited June 19, 2012 by dre

[Michael Hardner]

Maintaining the wait times in Ontario is quite the accomplishment considering they have actually increased overall across the country.

Except that McGuinty promised that he would improve them. Also, how much money is being spent - how much increase in budget - to maintain them?

[guyser]

bjre would take things way to far but he does have a point.

Doubt I agree with that but ok.

You are better off having higher malpractice rates than bankrupting the country with unchecked costs, or creating scarcity so that some people cant get care.

Those two do not go together. Malpractice has nothing to do with payor.

[Michael Hardner]

Theres is no point in having standards that are so high, and a certification regime that is so ownerous that you have a big problem with scarcity. Imagine if our standards were so high that only the best 10 doctors on the planet qualified? We would be dying on the streets by the millions and nobody would get any care.

Simple things that get looked at in the ER and in a GP office could be handled more cheaply by a practitioner of sorts. Also, streamlining the information management system (this is what eHealth is supposed to be) should save TONS of money.

But the province is utterly inept at doing such things, and the political goals of the leadership are at odds with progressive, slow improvement.

You are better off having higher malpractice rates than bankrupting the country with unchecked costs, or creating scarcity so that some people cant get care.

That's a trade off.

[dre]

Doubt I agree with that but ok.

Those two do not go together. Malpractice has nothing to do with payor.

Those two things absolutely DO go together. Prices are the intersection between supply and demand, and setting the bar for entry very high creates scarcity in supply and drives up prices. Reducing barriers to entry will increase supply and reduce prices, but it will also result in more mistakes.

We need to create a situation where theres a surplus of healthcare workers, and they compete with each other for government contracts in the UHC system. What we have right now is a system that is structurally predisposed to the very highest prices possible. Doctors bargain as one huge block, instead of competing with each other, and unbelievably the associations that negotiation prices with provincial governments on behalf of doctors also control certification standards. This is the ultimate recipe for high prices.