A man dead for 10 months finally gets a surgery date

1. “But Mrs Heath said her son had private health insurance and although he received chemotherapy for his pancreatic cancer at the RBWH, all other procedures were done at private hospitals.” It’s easy to see how the public system might not have been informed of this patient’s death at a private hospital.
2. The patient was incorrectly placed on a list to see a urologist. Depending on which part of the article you read, the patient is either on a list for elective surgery or on a list to see a urologist.

Here’s how Kevin should have titled this link: “10 Months after his death, a man is accidentally placed on a list to see a urologist”

Not quite as scary.

How bad is Canada’s system anyway? According to Statistics Canada:

- Median wait time for non-emergency surgeries: 4.3 weeks

- Median wait time for specialist visits for a new illness or condition: 4.3 weeks

- Median wait times for selected diagnostic tests: 3.0 weeks

- the 95th percentile median wait times for the above services are at 26 weeks (approx 6.5 months). This is the group I assume Americans get their views of Canada’s healthcare system from. This small proportion of the population are the rare but shocking stories that unfortunately condemn the entire system.

Either way, it’s obvious none of these numbers come close to 10 months.

Obviously, 4.3 weeks is a long time to wait and obviously Canada’s system needs improvement. But it’s not nearly as bad as is portrayed in the American media. Don’t forget these services are open to everyone, regardless of income or insurance levels (ooh, scary isn’t it? the commies are coming!!). Also, per capita spending on healthcare in Canada is cheaper than in the U.S. Many of the problems in Canada’s healthcare system are due to the fact that the provincial governments have been cutting a lot of funding over the past 15 years, and not because it is a publicly-funded system.

Why does this site continue to put forth alarmist and slanted views of the Canadian health care system? and for that matter, other publicly-funded systems?