Wait times on the rise for elective surgeries

Fraser study says it’s taking an average of 19.8 weeks for patients to get procedures

As surgical wait times start REGINA to creep up in Saskatchewan, the province isn’t committing to more procedures being done privately. It isn’t being ruled out, either. When asked if some day surgeries might be diverted to third-party clinics to deal with the rising numbers, Mark Wyatt, assistant deputy minister of health said that’s considered on an ongoing basis to maximize the surgical services and resources across the province.

“For the last few years, we’ve been working provincially within a more restrictive budget and I think the fiscal situation is widely recognized and that has limited our ability to significantly expand the operating room time, both in the hospitals, but also in those private facilities,” he said.

The Fraser Institute reported Wednesday that Saskatchewan had the second shortest waits for elective treatments in the country, but waits in the province still jumped from 16.6 weeks in 2016 to 19.8 weeks this year.

“The involvement of the private sector through the introduction of private surgical facilities and private MRI and CT facilities has been part of the strategy that has helped us achieve the lower wait times,” Wyatt said.

“The introduction of those privately delivered, publicly funded services has absolutely been part of the way we’ve been able to reduce wait times.”

The wait for ear, nose and throat procedures in Saskatchewan increased by 163 per cent — from 921 patients waiting for a procedure in 2016 to 2,418 waiting this year.

“That would be the area where we’ve seen the greatest growth in our wait times since we started to see some increases,” Wyatt continued.

General surgery also saw a dramatic increase of patients waiting for a procedure after seeing a specialist — from 2,668 patients waiting in 2016 to 4,930 this year.

The rising wait times in Saskatchewan speaks to a trend across Canada, said Bacchus Barua, associate director of the Fraser Institute’s Centre for Health Policy Studies.

“When 19.8 weeks is the second shortest wait in the country, that is quite telling of the sort of system we’ve created for our patients,” he said.

According to the latest Fraser Institute report, wait times for medically necessary treatments hit a new high across the country in 2017.

The national average wait for elective treatments is 21.1 weeks.

Among the provinces, Ontario had the shortest average wait time at 15.4 weeks and New Brunswick recorded the longest wait time — 41.7 weeks.

Barua noted Saskatchewan’s progress can be traced to the creation of the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative in 2009, which set up pooling referrals so patients could see the first appropriate specialist and surgeries were contracted out to third-party clinics.

“That expanded access massively,” he said.

“We certainly did recognize Saskatchewan for bringing their wait times down significantly, but always cautioned that this was a Band-Aid solution.”

Over the last couple of years, some wait times have increased partly due to increased demand, Wyatt said. Currently, 36,919 Saskatchewan residents are waiting for procedures.

The Fraser Institute survey, based on estimates from doctors across Canada, indicates Saskatchewan tied for first in the country for wait times for CT scans and ultrasounds, but fifth for MRIs — despite many scans being done by third-party providers.

According to the institute, Saskatchewan residents can expect to wait 12 weeks for an MRI this year.