From Unfinished business, Report Card on Wait Times in Canada, published by the Wait Time Alliance:
the median wait time for patients requiring an inpatient bed-that is, from the time the patient presented at the ED [emergency department] to the time they were admitted to an inpatient bed-was 19 hours (average is 23.5 hours or nearly one full day), which is substantially higher than the CTAS thresholds (e.g., more than three times the 6 hour guideline for high-level acuity patients). The longer wait for patients to be admitted is often due to the inability to find an available hospital inpatient bed
The report has wait time data for other conditions including cancer.
John Stossel’s recent article cited this study. Here’s a quotable part:
Shirley Healy, like many sick Canadians, came to America for surgery. Her doctor in British Columbia told her she had only a few weeks to live because a blocked artery kept her from digesting food. Yet Canadian officials called her surgery “elective.”
“The only thing elective about this surgery was I elected to live,” she said.
