October 19, 2005
IT’S STILL STUCK IN THE CORPORATE POLICY AND STRATEGIC ANALYSIS DIVISION
Canadians still waiting (Tom Blackwell, National Post, October 19th, 2005)
Large increases in health-related spending have only marginally reduced the waiting times for medical services in this country from record-high levels in 2004, a new report says.The average delay shortened by about a day from last year's 17.9 weeks, the highest number since the Fraser Institute started issuing annual reports on the topic in 1990.
Queues in some areas have shortened, but wait times for joint replacements and other orthopedic surgery -- one of the most backlogged and scrutinized services -- actually lengthened by two weeks, says the think-tank in its survey of specialists.
"This is occurring in spite of dramatic increases in health spending the last three or four years," said Nadeem Esmail, senior analyst with the conservative organization. "The provinces are spending more and more and more on health care, and the wait times are stalling out."[...]
Dr. Brian Postl, the Winnipeg health administrator who acts as the federal government's wait times advisor, said the Fraser Institute results confirm what most Canadians know: It often takes too long to get medical care.
But he said it is unrealistic to expect the new infusion of cash from the federal government to bring tangible results yet.
"The money has only been entering the system in the last few months in most jurisdictions," Dr. Postl said. "Though each province has some considerable success story to tell about how things have improved, a lot of that wouldn't have filtered down to physicians' practices."
Can there be any better illustration of the modern bureaucratic mentality than that Dr. Postl offers his undoubtedly correct explanation confident it will be greeted with understanding rather than rage.