Evidence shows privately funded health care does not decrease wait times

Current public dialogue is full of questions about what kind of innovation or "revamping" the health system needs. In this context, as a physician, I am compelled to apply principles of evidence-based practice to the public vs. private debate: Will Brian Day's plan to expand privately funded health care in B.C. shorten wait lists and improve the system?

Evidence indicates it will do the opposite. Of the Canadian provinces, B.C. has the most privately funded orthopedics services, and the longest waiting lists for this specialty. Evidence indicates that privately funded health services and long public wait times go hand in hand, and that growth in private payment will do nothing to alleviate it.

Jason Kenney Vows To Clear Social Security Tribunal Backlog By This Summer

OTTAWA - Jason Kenney is vowing that by this summer, he'll eliminate the massive caseload backlog that's left thousands of ailing or injured Canadians waiting years for appeals after being denied Canada Pension Plan disability benefits.

In a letter obtained by The Canadian Press, the employment and social development minister describes a "two-part action plan" to wipe out the backlog at Ottawa's beleaguered social security tribunal in just a few months.

Alberta Health Queue Jumping Inquiry Recommends Changes

EDMONTON - An inquiry has found that queue-jumping has occurred in Alberta's health-care system and an environment exists in which it could happen again.

Justice John Vertes says there was no basis to claims that queue-jumping was widespread and politicians were moving people to the front of the line. But there were instances where people got faster care.

Health Wait Times Still Fail To Meet Patient Demands

National wait-time grades haven't improved for medical treatments that federal and provincial governments agreed to provide more quickly, according to a new report card.

The Wait Times Alliance, which includes doctors from specialties such as emergency medicine, radiology and cardiology, released its annual report on wait times, titled "Canadians still waiting too long for health care," on Tuesday.

Wait times grow as we near the end of the 2004 Health Accord

A new report by the Canadian Institution for Health Information is showing that wait times were dropping for knee and hip surgeries in the years following the 2004 Health Accord.

In the 2004 Health Accord, "governments committed to reducing waits in five priority areas and set benchmarks for radiation therapy, cardiac bypass surgery, hip and knee replacements, hip fracture repair and cataract surgery," says CIHI. But as we near the expiry of the 2004 accord, CIHI's data shows that wait times are growing: "In 2012, 80 per cent of patients received hip replacements within the benchmark wait time, compared with 84 per cent of patients in 2010. The proportion of patients receiving knee surgery within the benchmark also declined during this period, from 79 per cent to 75 per cent."

Queue-jumping inquiry accuses health minister of interference

EDMONTON - The head of Alberta's queue-jumping inquiry is accusing Health Minister Fred Horne of interfering with its work by setting unrealistic deadlines.

Commission head John Vertes told the inquiry Thursday that Horne wrote him a letter on Feb. 19 rejecting Vertes's request for an extension on the April 30 deadline to submit his report to the legislature.

Alberta Health Queue Jumping: Inquiry Hears Doctor Told Clerk To Let Patients Jump Line

CALGARY - A high-ranking Calgary doctor at the centre of queue-jumping allegations conceded Monday he booked his patients outside the normal routine, but said he didn't realize that would move them to the front of the line.

Dr. Ron Bridges told Alberta's preferential access inquiry Monday that he was not clear on the rules for booking patients into the publicly funded Colon Cancer Screening Centre, which he founded in 2008.

Queue-jumping inquiry update: Who pays $10,000 a year for yoga and diet advice?

Can we agree on one thing? Nobody pays $10,000 to $15,000 a year just for massages, yoga and diet advice.

Alberta's medical queue-jumping inquiry continued this week with testimony from the principals of a high-end Calgary medical clinic -- unfortunate turn of phrase, that, under the circumstances -- whose customers got to skip the line for diagnostic colon cancer screening at a public colonoscopy clinic in the same building.

‘We know everyone’s not equal’: Queue-jumping probe looks at patients who receive VIP treatment

There were private-clinic customers pushed to the front of the line for colon-cancer screening, nurses who hoarded pandemic-flu vaccine for their own family members and VIPs given, well, VIP treatment in hospital.

An ongoing Alberta public inquiry is offering an unprecedented glimpse at a side of health care usually kept under close wraps: Patients whose influence, fame or money earns them special treatment in an over-taxed system.

Alberta's health care queue-jumping inquiry finds itself at a crucial fork in the road

With the revelation earlier this week of systematic queue jumping involving a private medical clinic in Calgary, Alberta's Health Care Preferential Treatment Inquiry has arrived at a critical fork in the road.

The credibility of the entire inquiry headed by retired justice John Vertes depends on whether it pursues the leads revealed in testimony about how the exclusive Helios Wellness Centre, for which clients are said to have paid $10,000 a year, managed to get its non-emergency patients jumped to the front of a long waiting list for a public colon cancer screening clinic.

Either the inquiry is a legitimate attempt to get to the bottom of accusations of line-jumping in Alberta's health care system -- called in response to claims by former Alberta Health Services CEO Stephen Duckett, physician and politician Raj Sherman and others that the practice was routine -- or it is an expensive political kabuki drama whose goal is to obfuscate rather than illuminate.

Worries of queue-jumping at colon cancer screening centre date to last spring

CALGARY — Alberta Health Services looked into “rumours” around queue-jumping at Calgary’s colon cancer screening centre last spring but decided not to formally investigate as there wasn’t enough evidence to trigger a full review, an inquiry heard Wednesday.

The decision to not look further into the Forzani and MacPhail Colon Cancer Screening Centre came weeks after the province’s Feb. 28, 2012 announcement of the Health Services Preferential Access Inquiry looking into medical system queue-jumping.

Queue-jumping allegations could spark probe of private clinic

CALGARY — Allegations that physicians were involved in expediting cancer screening tests for well-heeled patients from a private Calgary clinic could prompt the province’s disciplinary body for doctors to investigate.

Dr. Trevor Theman, registrar with the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons, said Wednesday he was upset by inquiry testimony that clients of Helios Wellness Centre — who paid annual memberships of up to $10,000 each — got colonoscopies through the public system within weeks or months while other routine cases waited more than three years.

Ontario ER patients waiting too long for hospital beds, says report

OTTAWA—A national report card on how long Canadians wait for medical treatment gave Ontario hospitals a failing grade for taking too long to move patients out of the emergency room and into beds.

Ontario and Alberta are the only two provinces that publish how long it takes for a patient to move through the emergency department at any given hospital, from the moment they register to the moment they get admitted or go home.

A report card from the Wait Time Alliance — a coalition of national physician groups — issued on Tuesday shows Ontario is failing to meet its own wait-time benchmarks for getting people into beds.

The targeted wait time limits are from four to eight hours, depending on the level of distress the patient is in.

Higher cost, longer wait times in store for pardon seekers

Canadians seeking a criminal record suspension under a new, more expensive pardon system could wait two years or more for their application to be processed – only to find out they’ve been rejected.

Details published by the government this week show that along with the new $631 fee – justified by the need “to efficiently and effectively deliver pardon services” – the Parole Board of Canada anticipates longer processing times.

The bureaucratic delays will come on top of dramatic extensions in the ineligibility period for pardon applicants contained in the Conservative government’s proposed omnibus crime bill currently before the Senate.

The changes are all part of sweeping reforms sparked after The Canadian Press revealed in 2010 that former hockey coach Graham James, a repeat sex offender, had been quietly issued a routine pardon. Mr. James has since been convicted of more sex offences.

Parliament quickly agreed in June 2010 to ensure no pardon is granted that would bring the “administration of justice into disrepute” – meaning more intensive and time-consuming scrutiny of applications.

Number of NHS patients missing waiting-time target soars

The number of patients not being treated within the NHS waiting-time limit has soared by 43% since the coalition took office, official figures show.

Department of Health data confirmed a large increase in the number of patients who have been denied the right to be treated within 18 weeks, which is enshrined in the NHS constitution.

In May 2010, the month the government came to power, 20,662 of the patients who received NHS-funded treatment in England had waited more than 18 weeks. In November 2011 that number reached 29,508 – a jump of 42.8%.

A rise of 13.9% was recorded in the last year alone, from 25,903 in November 2010 to 29,508 in November 2011. The increases are disclosed in the latest monthly data covering the NHS's Referral to Treatment stipulation that patients should have treatment, which is often surgery, within 18 weeks of being referred by their GP.

The number of patients forced to wait at least a year before being treated has also rocketed under the coalition. In May 2010, 321 of those treated had waited that long, but in November 2011 1,018 had done so – a 217% increase.