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Canadian Health Care System

Would it kill you to wait a little bit?

The answer to that question is, apparently, yes.


Waiting List Deaths Hit Four-Year High​


  • Government data shows 13,581 Canadians died last year waiting for everything from heart operations and knee surgery to MRI and CT scans
  • Surgical waiting list deaths up 24% over the past four years
CALGARY, AB: SecondStreet.org released its fourth Died on a Waiting List report today after gathering and analyzing government data on patients dying while waiting for surgery and diagnostic scans. The data shows waiting list deaths are at a four-year high since the organization began tracking this problem in 2018-19.

The data shows that over the past four years, there has been a 24% increase in surgical waiting list deaths. Information obtained from Ontario Health data shows an increase of over 400% when it comes to waiting list deaths for CT scans and MRI scans since 2015-16.

“The pandemic made a bad situation worse, but Canadians should know this was a growing problem well before COVID arrived,” said SecondStreet.org President Colin Craig. “It’s quite startling how governments aren’t tracking this problem. One would think a health minister would want to know how many patients died due to long waiting lists in their province, but no health minister in Canada knows the answer.”

SecondStreet.org gathered the data by filing Freedom of Information requests with hospitals and health bodies across Canada. Highlights from this year’s report include:
  • At least 13,581 patients died while waiting for surgeries, procedures and diagnostic scans in 2021-22. This year’s total is up from last year’s total of 11,581.
  • The cases include a wide array of services – everything from hip operations and heart surgery to CT and MRI scans. Before dying on a waiting list, patients had waited anywhere from less than a month to over eight years. Many died after waiting longer than the recommended wait time.
  • Surgical waiting list deaths are up 24% over the past four years.
  • Nova Scotia provided the most comprehensive data. They were able to note that of the 352 patients who died while waiting for surgery this past year, 28 were waiting for surgeries that could have potentially saved their lives. Over 60% had waited longer than the recommended wait time.
  • Alberta no longer collects data related to this problem and Saskatchewan did not provide data in time. However, SecondStreet.org did obtain some data from Newfoundland for the first time.
Laura Hillier, Michel Houle, Jerry Dunham, Shannon Anderson, there are many cases of patients dying due to long waiting lists in Canada,” added Craig. “How can governments fix this problem if they’re not even looking into it? The first step is to start tracking the problem, then put in place solutions.”

 
Would it kill you to wait a little bit?

The answer to that question is, apparently, yes.


Waiting List Deaths Hit Four-Year High​


  • Government data shows 13,581 Canadians died last year waiting for everything from heart operations and knee surgery to MRI and CT scans
  • Surgical waiting list deaths up 24% over the past four years
CALGARY, AB: SecondStreet.org released its fourth Died on a Waiting List report today after gathering and analyzing government data on patients dying while waiting for surgery and diagnostic scans. The data shows waiting list deaths are at a four-year high since the organization began tracking this problem in 2018-19.

The data shows that over the past four years, there has been a 24% increase in surgical waiting list deaths. Information obtained from Ontario Health data shows an increase of over 400% when it comes to waiting list deaths for CT scans and MRI scans since 2015-16.

“The pandemic made a bad situation worse, but Canadians should know this was a growing problem well before COVID arrived,” said SecondStreet.org President Colin Craig. “It’s quite startling how governments aren’t tracking this problem. One would think a health minister would want to know how many patients died due to long waiting lists in their province, but no health minister in Canada knows the answer.”

SecondStreet.org gathered the data by filing Freedom of Information requests with hospitals and health bodies across Canada. Highlights from this year’s report include:
  • At least 13,581 patients died while waiting for surgeries, procedures and diagnostic scans in 2021-22. This year’s total is up from last year’s total of 11,581.
  • The cases include a wide array of services – everything from hip operations and heart surgery to CT and MRI scans. Before dying on a waiting list, patients had waited anywhere from less than a month to over eight years. Many died after waiting longer than the recommended wait time.
  • Surgical waiting list deaths are up 24% over the past four years.
  • Nova Scotia provided the most comprehensive data. They were able to note that of the 352 patients who died while waiting for surgery this past year, 28 were waiting for surgeries that could have potentially saved their lives. Over 60% had waited longer than the recommended wait time.
  • Alberta no longer collects data related to this problem and Saskatchewan did not provide data in time. However, SecondStreet.org did obtain some data from Newfoundland for the first time.
Laura Hillier, Michel Houle, Jerry Dunham, Shannon Anderson, there are many cases of patients dying due to long waiting lists in Canada,” added Craig. “How can governments fix this problem if they’re not even looking into it? The first step is to start tracking the problem, then put in place solutions.”

It's not a bug it's a feature.

MAiD is the future of cost control.
 
Unpopular opinion, Canadian healthcare isn't facing a payment/system problem, it's facing a "no one has cared to read a population pyramid and act accordingly in the last 20 years" problem.

I thought it was because people aren’t wearing masks?
 
Unpopular opinion, Canadian healthcare isn't facing a payment/system problem, it's facing a "no one has cared to read a population pyramid and act accordingly in the last 20 years" problem.
Health care isn’t the only issue when people don’t pay attention to the pyramid inversion in the younger age segments…a society lets its pyramid base bend in on itself, at its own peril…
 
Unpopular opinion, Canadian healthcare isn't facing a payment/system problem, it's facing a "no one has cared to read a population pyramid and act accordingly in the last 20 years" problem.
I have been saying this for years. I am also something of a modern day Don Quixote.
 
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