May 05, 2008
Health care delivery problems in Canada
Often when the issue of health care access is discussed someone will point north and advocate for a Canada-styled heath care system for the U.S.
But there are problems in the Canadian health care system too. From theglobalandmail.com:
Canada, once able to boast about its high rank in the world for low infant-mortality rate – sixth place in 1990 – saw its rank plummet to 25th place in 2005, according to figures published this year by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Specifically, Canada's infant mortality rate of 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births is tied with Estonia's and more than double Sweden's rate of 2.4.
According to the OECD the infant mortality rate for the U.S. was not listed for 2005 but it was 6.8 (deaths per 1000 live births) for 2004.
In addition, the waiting times for many procedures in Canada seems long. In a report titled The Wait Time Strategy (available as a pdf at the health.gov.on.ca website) the number of days between decision to treat and treatment is listed. These are the average number of days waiting for December 2006 and January 2007.
Cancer Surgery 68 days
Angiography 28 days
Angioplasty 17 days
Bypass Surgery 48 days
Cataract Surgery 183 days
Hip Replacement 257 days
Knee Replacement 307 days
MRI 105 days
CT 62 days
If interested, you can navigate the Canadian health care website and check the average waiting times for various hospitals and geographic areas in Ontario.
Bonus: The next lecture in our Works in Progress series will be titled, "“Engaging community members for research purposes: Who benefits?" Check back tomorrow for full details.