Albertans wait over six months for necessary health care: report
Posted Dec 4, 2018 8:28 am.
Last Updated Dec 4, 2018 8:57 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) – If you’ve been waiting a long time to see a health care specialist, you’re not alone.
A new study from the Fraser Institute isn’t showing good numbers for Alberta and Canada when it comes to wait times for necessary medical treatment. According to the report, the average wait time in the province is 26.1 weeks, higher than the Canadian average of 19.1 weeks.
Associate Director of Policy Studies for the Fraser Institute, Bacchus Barua, explained why the wait times are so high.
“We try to attack the system by simply pouring more money into it, tweaking it at the margins, but generally policy has remained unchanged during this entire time and therefore we haven’t seen an actual improvement in wait times over these many years.”
Barua said since the Fraser Institute started gathering wait time data in 1993, the wait time has increased about 150 per cent. In 1993, the average wait time in Alberta was 10.5 weeks.
He adds that Canada can learn from other countries who also have a universal health care system but with shorter wait times.
“They end up partnering with a private sector, they have user fees and co-payments, they fund their hospitals based on activity and these are all policies that are distinctly different than what we do in Canada. I think a good start would be looking at what these countries do differently.”
While Alberta’s wait time might seem steep, it’s not the highest in the country. That title goes to New Brunswick with an average wait time of 45.1 weeks.
