In the second of what may end up being a series of debunking diaries on health care in Canada (specifically in the province of Ontario), here is some information on wait times for both ER visits and surgeries.
There is a meme about Canadian health care that it is "rationed". I'm not sure what that means, it's not like World War II where we have a booklet that gets stamped when we visit an emergency room or get an operation done. What we do have are targets that the Ministry of Health has set for ER visits and various types of common surgery. All the information is available for public consumption at this handy website. Below I'll review some of the numbers and in return I'd like to know more about your expectations and experiences with the American system.
In the city of Toronto, here are wait times for ER visits. The link to the information can be found on this Ministry of Health link. There are details for every hospital in the province. As you can see, some are better than others. The busiest ones in Toronto are either downtown like Toronto General, or specialized like the Hospital for Sick Children or Sunnybrook, which is the trauma centre for gun shot wounds or serious car accidents.
So let's say you need surgery. Bypass surgery specifically. If you live in Toronto, here's what you can expect:
St. Michael's Hospital (Toronto) Toronto Central 26
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre ** Special note (Toronto) Toronto Central 33
University Health Network ** Special note (Toronto) Toronto Central 36
Trillium Health Centre ** Special note (Mississauga) Mississauga Halton 41
Southlake Regional Health Centre (Newmarket) Central 58
That's the number of days you wait. I'd be interested to know comparable wait times in cities of similar size to Toronto like Chicago, Dallas, Boston or others.
Want another example? How about breast cancer surgery:
Peterborough Regional Health Centre (Peterborough) Central East 13
Humber River Regional Hospital ** Special note (Toronto) Central 19
Markham Stouffville Hospital (Markham) Central 21
Trillium Health Centre ** Special note (Mississauga) Mississauga Halton 22
St. Michael's Hospital (Toronto) Toronto Central 25
Southlake Regional Health Centre (Newmarket) Central 25
William Osler Health Centre ** Special note (Brampton) Central West 27
Lakeridge Health Corporation ** Special note (Oshawa) Central East 29
Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto) Toronto Central 29
Toronto East General Hospital (Toronto) Toronto Central 29
York Central Hospital (Richmond Hill) Central 31
Halton Healthcare Services Corporation ** Special note (Oakville) Mississauga Halton 31
North York General Hospital ** Special note (Toronto) Central 34
Scarborough Hospital ** Special note (Toronto) Central East 34
Credit Valley Hospital (Mississauga) Mississauga Halton 36
Women's College Hospital (Toronto) Toronto Central 41
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre ** Special note (Toronto) Toronto Central 41
University Health Network ** Special note (Toronto) Toronto Central 43
St. Joseph's Health Centre - Toronto (Toronto) Toronto Central 48
Rouge Valley Health System ** Special note (Toronto) Central East 51
Most seem to have a 3 to 5 week wait time. Again, I would like to know what the comparable time is in an American city.
Perhaps these times are much longer than an American would wait. Of course, I guess it depends if said American has the kind of health insurance that would allow them to get a triple bypass or masectomy without selling their homes, raiding their retirement fund or going bankrupt first. So readers, have I soured you on Canadian health care, or is this bolstering the case for a single payer system?