A new report has found Ontario patients are waiting up to an average of two-and-a-half months to see a specialist, following a referral from their family doctor.
Researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) looked at the time it took to see a specialist after a family doctor referral among 54 Ontario general practioners.
They found that cardiology had the shortest medical wait time at 39 days while gastroenterology had the longest wait time for medical procedures at 76 days.
For surgical wait times, general surgery had the shortest wait time at 33 days. Conversely orthopedics had the longest surgical wait time at 66 days.
Current wait times in Ontario focus on the time from seeing a specialist to having the procedure done and involve a select number of services like cataract surgeries, hip and knee replacements and MRI scans.
Study author Dr. Liisa Jaakimainen says patients want a more complete picture of wait times.
"It's important to sort of remember that from a patient perspective that there's a lot of different wait times they experience in our health care system. And I think while there have been improvements with strategies to access surgical procedures for things like hip and knee replacements and cataract surgeries and the receipt of certain diagnostic procedures, I think we forget that patients wait times from other parts."
Michael Barrett, CEO of the Southwest Local Health Integration Network, says wait time measures fill a needed role in patient care.
"Patients can ask for shorter wait times and look for shorter wait times from their physicians. Then physicians themselves can ensure they're doing their best job to ensure those wait times are reduced."
Researchers say the size and location of the family practice influenced wait times, with higher referral rates linked with longer wait times.
