Many children wait for surgery: report

More than 17,000 Canadian children waited longer for surgery than doctors recommended last year, according to a report.

The Wait Time Alliance released its fifth annual report card Thursday, and for the first time the annual report includes information on pediatric surgery from 15 pediatric hospitals across the country.

About 73 per cent of children received their surgeries within the benchmark period for a score of B, but more than 17,000 children had to wait longer, which can jeopardize their development, said Dr. Lorne Bellan, co-chair of the Wait Time Alliance.

Surgery for children with wandering eye and plastic surgery for cleft lip and cleft palate had the longest wait times.

"Since physical development in young children and youth occurs very quickly, especially in the early years, delaying surgery could have a lifelong impact on these young patients and their families," the report's authors wrote.

"For example, delay in correcting wandering eye in children jeopardizes their chances of retrieving normal vision and the associated benefits in quality of life. Similarly, cleft lip and/or palate surgery must be performed at specific times to ensure optimal speech and brain development."

The alliance also gives a grade of D for ophthalmology and dentistry wait times, meaning 41 to 50 per cent of patients waited longer than recommended.

Raise the bar beyond priority areas

The report also found some Canadian adults also face long waits for care in the five areas governments agreed to as priorities six years ago:

• Joint replacement (hip and knee).
• Sight restoration (cataract surgery).
• Heart (coronary artery bypass graft).
• Diagnostic imaging (MRI and CT).
• Cancer care (radiation therapy).

For these priority areas, Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia scored 'A' grades, meaning more than 80 per cent of their populations were treated within the nationally set benchmarks.

For Newfoundland and Labrador and Alberta, the wait time data was more than six months old. Alberta has failed to implement a wait-time guarantee as promised, according to the report.

"Canadians deserve timely access to health care and accurate information about the wait they can expect." Bellan said.

The group called on governments to raise the bar for specialties beyond the five priority areas, such as emergency department waits and waits for scheduled nuclear medicine tests. Specialties outside the five areas earned an average grade of "D," or nearly half of patients waiting longer than medically acceptable.

Government benchmarks did not include waits for referral to a specialist or multiple waits for tests and procedures for a single health concern, the report noted.

The alliance represents 14 national organizations whose members are directly involved in providing care for patients.