Wait Times: Ideology vs timely patient care

[rustled]

Interesting story:

“By focusing reforms on practical solutions rather than ideological preferences, the Government of Saskatchewan has markedly reduced wait times in a fairly short period of time,” said Prof. Janice MacKinnon, author of the study.

“As provincial and federal leaders across the country struggle with health care budgets and demand for services, which will only increase as our population ages, the Saskatchewan experience shows that success depends on leadership, focusing on patients, collaborative decision-making and valuing results over ideology,” said Mackinnon in the study.

http://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/164 ... wait-times
Good news, and yet such interesting comments below, where ideologists insist it's not good news and attack the source.

More and more, it seems to me that today's ideologists are far less compassionate than the pragmatists. Ideology before people. What strange times we live in,

[d0nb]

Another reform allows private for-profit clinics to perform day surgeries covered by Medicare.

Because there were no additional fees or charges from these private clinics, the use of the clinics are within the guidelines of the Canada Health Act.

A good sign, to be sure.

Clinics and hospitals run by the private sector would likely go a long way toward improving the outcomes of medical treatments in Canada. But as you mentioned, the ideologues throw hissy fits whenever free market solutions to public sector incompetence are suggested.

[The Green Barbarian]

I will never understand how the leftist dolts can continue to say that the current system is working. It's not working. It's a joke. Kudos to Saskatchewan for being brave enough to change. It's too bad engrained stupidity and prejudice will continue to enslave the rest of the Canadian health care system.

[Urbane]

This topic should be getting far more attention on here, far more attention from the public at large, and far more attention from our elected leaders. Count me in as a pragmatist and when we see what has been done in Saskatchewan to shorten wait times it should prompt us to ask our provincial leaders in BC why they haven't taken similar steps here. It's a shame when ideology trumps pragmatism, particularly when it involves suffering or even death. The status quo is not satisfactory so let's start looking at what actually works rather than what suits our political ideology.

[Urbane]

It would seem as if Saskatchewan has taken a page out of the European healthcare book:

http://www.troymedia.com/2010/05/11/to- ... ean-model/

Average wait time for an MRI in Canada: 7 weeks or more
Average wait time for an MRI in Switzerland or Germany: 1 week or less

Average wait time for knee or hip replacements in Canada: well over 100 days (in some provinces many more)
Average wait time for knee or hip replacements in the Netherlands or France: 90% completed within 90 days.

Canada spends MORE on healthcare than do most of the countries with better healthcare systems in Europe. Why do we keep settling for a status quo that has so many deficiencies? Answer: ideology.

[The Green Barbarian]

Canada needs more doctors. Period. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

[GordonH]

Canada needs more doctors. Period. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

& less money sucking Administrators, so more money sees front lines

[rustled]

Canada needs more doctors. Period. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

& less money sucking Administrators, so more money sees front lines

While I totally agree we need more doctors and spend far too much on admin, I think it's an oversimplification to make it only about hiring more doctors or blaming the administrators.

To me, it's more about rethinking and overcoming the wasteful and inefficient mindset that permeates the entire system. No department is immune.

When a nurse gets barked at for picking up a piece of laundry that's likely to trip the next person who comes along, and is told she must instead call for a person of the right job description to lift that bedding from the floor, we have a problem.

When doctors must spend their time re-completing government forms that state the patient still has the disability she was born with, we have a problem.

When doctors must see a patient to re-refer her (not because anything's changed, but simply because the last referral is now "too old"), we have a problem.

The mindless bureaucracy and red tape are mind-boggling. No business would survive being run this way. And the ideological insistence that everything be done through the same inefficient channel is only making everything worse.

[Urbane]

^^ Rustled - great post! It's somewhat disheartening that Canadians aren't more interested in looking at needed changes to our healthcare system. We hear a lot from those who want more money to be spent but little from those interested in emulating the systems that are more efficient and with better healthcare outcomes than ours. Maybe, just maybe, the changes made in Saskatchewan will be a catalyst for changes elsewhere. And wouldn't it be nice if the federal government amended the Canada Health Act to allow European-style initiatives?