How long are surgery waits in Hamilton, Burlington?

Some exceed Ontario average, others far off, new online site shows

Waits are long for hip and knee replacement surgery in Hamilton, but fast for heart procedures.

It’s too slow to get cataract surgery in Burlington, while lung cancer patients don’t wait at all to see a Hamilton surgeon.

Ontario made enhanced wait time information available online to the public Thursday.

Below is a snapshot of how long it takes to get surgery locally.

Orthopedic surgery THE BOTTOM LINE

It was faster to get hip and knee replacement surgery in Burlington than Hamilton.

THE WORST RESULTS

Waits were too high for hip and knee replacements at St. Joseph’s in May.

Patients waited 191 days on average for surgery, which is above Ontario’s target of 182 days.

Hamilton Health Sciences also has lengthy delays of 154 days compared to the provincial average of 120 days.

Only about half the patients at HHS and St. Joseph’s got knee replacement within the province’s target times. Ontario’s average is three-quarters.

The waits aren’t much better for hip replacement surgery. It took 185 days on average for patients at St. Joseph’s to get their operation, which is again above the target.

Waits were also high at HHS with an average of 156 days compared to the province’s 114 days.

Closer to 60 per cent of Hamilton patients got their hip replacement within the target.

But it was still well off Ontario’s 77 per cent.

Shoulder surgery also had longer waits than average at HHS and Joseph Brant; while St. Joseph’s had delays in knee arthroscopy.

It takes longer than average to get an appointment for forefoot surgery at HHS, while waits are high to get the operation at St. Joseph’s.