Study says surgical waits growing in province

Fraser Institute says delay now 28 weeks; critics question study’s methods, motive

Mean wait times for “medically necessary” procedures have nearly tripled in Alberta in the past quarter-century, according to a Canadian think-tank.

The overall time it takes from seeing a general practitioner until surgery has this year reached 28 weeks in Alberta compared to just 10 weeks in 1993, states a study released Monday by the Fraser Institute.

That’s well above the national average of 20.9 weeks, says the right-leaning think-tank which based its number on a survey of 1,844 specialists in 12 medical fields from January to April of this year.

The numbers are calculated in the Waiting Your Turn study, which focuses on recording the median or midpoint — where half the times are shorter and the other half longer — of wait times.

“Even if one debates the reliability of waiting-list data, this survey also reveals that wait times in Canada are longer than what physicians consider to be clinically reasonable,” states the report’s conclusion.

In Alberta, the 2019 median wait time between seeing a general practitioner to treatment for orthopedic surgery was 62.5 weeks, 5.5 weeks for medical oncology, and 22 weeks for general surgery.

Only 17 per cent of those sent a survey questionnaire responded, noted Sandra Azocar with the group Friends of Medicare, who also questioned the Fraser Institute’s motives.

“I take studies like this with a grain of salt ... It sets the stage for a (privatization) narrative when you have studies that aren’t clear what you’re trying to accomplish; and, they’re based on so few responses,” she said. “It doesn’t really speak to what policy initiatives are needed to address them.”

But she said wait times are undoubtedly an issue in Alberta and elsewhere, due possibly to increasingly privatized diagnostic imaging that draws physicians away from the public system.

Alberta’s system, she said, could follow Quebec’s example and provide round-the-clock imaging services.

And the province has to examine whether there are sufficient numbers of pre- and post-surgical beds, added Azocar.

According to the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI), hip replacement surgery was delivered 70 per cent of the time within a six-month benchmark while cataract procedures met that standard 49 per cent of the time in Alberta last year.

Radiation therapy met a sixmonth national benchmark 100 per cent of the time.

A spokesman for Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro said the ministry collects data differently than the Fraser Institute study did, but noted that the provincial government “has no argument with the point of the report.”

“Albertans are waiting too long; we campaigned on reducing wait times and tomorrow (Tuesday) the Minister of Health is going to announce his plan to deliver on that commitment,” said Steve Buick.

He said improvements to those wait times will be funded from savings found within the existing budget.