HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, May 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Long waits for surgery and medical treatment cost Atlantic Canadians $305 million in lost wages and productivity last year, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
And those costs could increase now that many provinces have postponed elective (or scheduled) surgeries as a result of COVID-19.
“Health-care workers in Atlantic Canada, and indeed across the country, should be commended for the superb job they’re doing to get us through this global pandemic. However, once elective surgeries resume, they could face further challenges as they tackle the ever-increasing backlog of patients waiting for care,” said Bacchus Barua, associate director of health policy studies at the Fraser Institute and co-author of The Private Cost of Public Queues for Medically Necessary Care, 2020.
The study finds that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 122 thousand patients across Atlantic Canada waited for medically necessary treatment last year, and across the region, depending on the province, patients collectively lost $15 million to $134 million due to lost wages and reduced productivity during working hours.
Across all four Atlantic provinces, the costs of waiting for medical care were approximately $305 million.
The study draws upon data from the Fraser Institute’s Waiting Your Turn study, an annual survey of Canadian physicians who, in 2019, reported a median wait time across Canada from specialist appointment to treatment of 10.8 weeks—three and a half weeks longer than what physicians consider clinically reasonable.
In Atlantic Canada, the wait times from specialist to treatment range from 12.4 weeks in Newfoundland and Labrador to 20.5 weeks in Prince Edward Island.
Across Canada, the costs of waiting for medical care were about $2.1 billion in 2019, and that doesn’t include the time patients wait to see a specialist after receiving a referral from their family doctor or a general practitioner.
“Even before we started postponing surgeries as a result of COVID-19, Atlantic Canadians were waiting a significant amount of time for medically necessary treatments and surgeries, which mean lost wages and a reduced quality of life for patients,” Barua said.
“Now is the time to consider policy options that may benefit patients and alleviate strain on our public health-care system once the COVID- 19 crisis has run its course.”
Because wait times and incomes vary by province, so does the cost of waiting for health care. Residents of Manitoba in 2019 faced the highest per-patient cost of waiting ($3,011), followed by P.E.I. ($2,856) and Alberta ($2,834).
Average value of time lost during the work week in 2019 for patients waiting for medically necessary treatment (by province):
| British Columbia | $1,776 |
| Alberta | $2,834 |
| Saskatchewan | $2,421 |
| Manitoba | $3,011 |
| Ontario | $1,408 |
| Quebec | $1,381 |
| New Brunswick | $2,679 |
| Nova Scotia | $2,386 |
| Prince Edward Island* | $2,856 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | $2,421 |
*Estimates for P.E.I. should be interpreted with caution due to limited survey data
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bacchus Barua, Associate Director, Health Policy Studies
Fraser Institute
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Drue MacPherson, Fraser Institute
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The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute’s independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org.