In fact, you do have wait times like that.

You are in Dartmouth which is by Halifax correct?
Queen Elizabeth II Health Science Center Halifax, Nova Scotia Wait times

MRI 203 Days
Screening Mammogram 273 Days
Cardiac Catherization 16, 30 or 40 days depending on severity.
Cardiovascular Surgery 3 to 16 days
Cancer center consultation 24 days

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So 3 days, 16 days, 24 days - they don't sound long to me. Do you have NO wait time in the USA? Anywhere?

I don't know about the MRI and mammogram wait times so I cannot honestly comment on them.

I know if my doctor wants me to go for a test or procedure, it's rarely longer than a month. If it's an EMERGENCY and you are REALLY ILL, you will be taken care of right away.

These wait times refer mostly to procedures that CAN wait.

Do you have any statistics on how many people die here waiting for treatment? Or die because they didn't catch whatever was wrong with them in time to treat it?

I've known lots of people who've had things wrong, had to have treatment, surgery, etc., and none have complained they were badly treated, had a bad experience with the procedure or should have gotten in much earlier or could have been less sick if they had gotten in earlier.

I had an accident years ago - I was taken instantly in for an MRI and my daughter was, too, as we had possible head injuries. Emergencies are taken care of right away. Any reason for any worry and it's done right away.

All I know is what I've seen, heard and experienced in my lifetime of living here, which is 42 years so far.

Just by the fact that the Canadian Health Care system finds it necessary to track and publish wait times tells me there is something wrong.

So the government is lying? I thought only wacky liberal Americans used that excuse.

LOL Heck, no, the gov't gets stuff wrong all the time. That surprises you? LOL

People like to complain. If they complain enough, a study is done. Wait time and lack of family doctors is about all there is to complain about. I just haven't experienced those problems and don't know anyone personally who has.

Who knows what factored into those numbers? If you are making an annual appt. for a mamogram, maybe they are booked almost a year in advance but if your doctor says, there's something wrong here, we need to look - I gurantee you it won't be 273 days wait time!! So it's really a matter of how you look at it.

As long as people aren't dying because of these wait times, I'd say the whiners need to chill and shut up. If people start dying because of wait times, then there's a problem, for sure.

Why must Canadians die waiting for surgery?

... "How can we celebrate Canada Health Day when 36 people in Quebec die every year waiting for surgery?" asks National Union President James Clancy.

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Health care system suffers from monopoly

.......the wagons are going circle in defence of a system that by all indications has seen more people die waiting for medical treatment than there have been Canadian casualties in Afghanistan since 2002.

It's tragically dangerous in Afghanistan, but it may be more dangerous to have to wait for cancer treatment, cardiac surgery, or an organ transplant in the Great White North. In the big tug-of-war between those pushing patients' rights and those protecting the present system, the system continues to come out on top. While the self-proclaimed defenders of the status quo hate it when I put it that way, the results of rationing medical care by limiting access to general practitioners, specialists, the latest medical technologies, and drug therapies are inescapable. Canadians have universal access to waiting lists, and if several thousand Canadians suffer needlessly and some even die -- as the Supreme Court concluded in 2005 -- so what.

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You know what? I'm not going to rebut any of this crap any more. Notice it all comes from Quebec? The province who does NOT want to be a part of Canada? Where English is NOT ALLOWED to be on the signs in the province? Who most people in Canada hate because they're such arrogant jerks?

Just a comment.

By the way, your source is a UNION. Of course they ##### - they want a raise and they want to work less. Pffft.

That article is also from 2000. Find me one from CBC or someone reliable that's dated 2007 or earlier going on about this and it'll be a lot more credible.

I have no problem with the healthcare system here and I don't have to defend it to you. I know how it works. I know no one I've even known or even heard of has ever had a bad thing happen to them because of the healthcare system so I'm not worried about it in the least.

You have your system, we have ours. You live there, I live here.

Have a good night

Brian Day is a Canadian Doctor with a mission...privatization...I'm not surprised by your article. He has even pulled strings to get in front of other Canadians for faster service...was it life threatening, I doubt it. Was he trying to highlight an issue? I'm not Canadian, but I'd say he probably was.

KJ

Wait times for surgery in Canada at all-time high: study

Last Updated: Monday, October 15, 2007 | 10:33 AM ET

IS THIS RECENT ENOUGH?????

The Canadian Press

A typical Canadian seeking surgical or other therapeutic treatment had to wait 18.3 weeks in 2007, an all-time high, according to new research published Monday by independent research organization the Fraser Institute.
"Despite government promises and the billions of dollars funnelled into the Canadian health-care system, the average patient waited more than 18 weeks in 2007 between seeing their family doctor and receiving the surgery or treatment they required," said Nadeem Esmail, director of Health System Performance Studies at the Fraser Institute and co-author of the 17th annual edition of Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada.
The survey measures median waiting times to document the extent to which queues for visits to specialists and for diagnostic and surgical procedures are used to control health-care expenditures.
"It's becoming clearer that Canada's current health-care system cannot meet the needs of Canadians in a timely and efficient manner, unless you consider access to a waiting list timely and efficient," Esmail added.
The 2007 survey found the total median waiting time for patients between referral from a general practitioner and treatment, averaged across all 12 specialties and 10 provinces surveyed, increased to 18.3 weeks from 17.8 weeks observed in 2006. This was primarily due to an increase in the first waiting period, between seeing the general practitioner and attending a consultation with a specialist.
Total waiting times increased in six provinces: Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. This masked the decreased waiting times in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
Waiting times best in Ontario
Ontario recorded the shortest waiting time overall (the wait between visiting a general practitioner and receiving treatment) at 15.0 weeks, followed by British Columbia (19.0 weeks) and Quebec (19.4 weeks). Saskatchewan (27.2 weeks), New Brunswick (25.2 weeks) and Nova Scotia (24.8 weeks) recorded the longest waits in Canada.
The waiting time between referral by a GP and consultation with a specialist rose to 9.2 weeks from the 8.8 weeks recorded in 2006. The shortest waits for specialist consultations were in Ontario (7.6 weeks), Manitoba (8.2 weeks) and British Columbia (8.8 weeks).
The longest waits for consultation with a specialist were recorded in New Brunswick (14.7 weeks), Newfoundland and Labrador (13.5 weeks) and Prince Edward Island (12.7 weeks).
The waiting time between specialist consultation and treatment — the second stage of waiting — increased to 9.1 weeks from 9.0 weeks in 2006. The shortest specialist-to-treatment waits were found in Ontario (7.3 weeks), Alberta (8.9 weeks) and Quebec (9.4 weeks), while the longest waits were in Saskatchewan (16.5 weeks), Nova Scotia (13.6 weeks) and Manitoba (12.0 weeks).
Among the various specialties, the shortest total waits (between referral by a general practitioner and treatment) occurred in medical oncology (4.2 weeks), radiation oncology (5.7 weeks) and elective cardiovascular surgery (8.4 weeks).
Patients waited longest between a GP referral and orthopedic surgery (38.1 weeks), plastic surgery (34.8 weeks) and neurosurgery (27.2 weeks).
Nova Scotia best for CT scans
As in past years, patients also experienced significant waiting times for various diagnostic technologies across Canada: computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound scans.
The median wait for a CT scan across Canada was 4.8 weeks. British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia had the shortest wait for CT scans (4.0 weeks), while the longest wait occurred in Manitoba (8.0 weeks).
The median wait for an MRI across Canada was 10.1 weeks. Patients in Ontario experienced the shortest wait for an MRI (7.8 weeks), while Newfoundland and Labrador residents waited longest (20.0 weeks).
© The Canadian Press, 2007

You know, I'm a hardcore conservative, but health care has gotten out of control for the middle class in this country. Unless you're fortunate enough to have a job that provides insurance at a REASONABLE price, it's almost impossible to afford it. Wait until you hit your 40's and 50's and watch what happens. My wife is in good health but her policy costs us 450 bucks a month. I'm on a group plan that costs me 300 bucks a month. Sorry but you can buy an extremely nice vehicle or a decent house for that note every month. The Insurance companies are ripping us off. Go by the Prudential building in New Jersey and watch the private helicpters landing in the front with the big wig execs. That's what you're paying for. I have friends living in Canada who have nothing but good to say about their healthcare. As they got older nothing changed except they could still go to the doctor without taking out a loan. I say Canada is at least doing something to help. That may or may not be the answer for us. On the other hand, my neighbors company dropped the medical insurance because it was costing too much and they couldn't afford to provide it anymore. He can't afford insurance at all. Here, if you don't have insurance, you go to a charity hospital and sit with the crack heads and welfare alcoholics in the waiting room for 18 hours, unless your arm is cut off or your half dead. My views on the health care have changed over the years, with the abuse I've seen of the system. Somethings got to be done, and it shouldn't involve INSURANCE COMPANIES making the decisions.

__________________

Exactly, Newbie. And no one's dying around here waiting for treatment and no one's dying SOONER because of delayed treatment, no matter what ronnocmot wants you to believe.

I can't imagine paying that per month. Most people in the USA who are opposed to our system cry "more taxes, more expensive" but $450 to $600 a month???

My boss in LA thinks it costs 45% MORE to live here!!!

I don't know where they get their numbers but it's much cheaper to live up here in EVERY respect, including healthcare. We don't have all the amenities you guys have and we don't have the population but it's sure a lot cheaper to live up here.

I couldn't survive in the USA with the income I'd make down there (and I work for a company in LA, I'd be paid the same salary I am now), especially if I wanted health insurance. I can live a comfortable life here on it, with a house, a car, food, and some extras. Down there, I'd be lucky to afford an apartment let alone a car.