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Wait Times: National Challenges

BC is active at the federal, inter-provincial and local levels to help improve the data used to determine wait times.

• BC is working with Canada Health Infoway and other national institutions to improve access to accurate health information and establish common standards to define and measure wait times for surgery in all provinces

• BC and other provinces and territories have endorsed national wait time benchmarks for a number of key surgical procedures

• BC’s Provincial Surgical Services Project brings government, health authorities and physicians together to develop new tools to help assess patients and manage wait lists more effectively

PSSP: A New Approach to Waitlist Management

The Provincial Surgical Services Project (PSSP) is a collaborative, province-wide project to improve to access to surgery in BC.

A major task is to create a Surgical Wait List Registry that produces more clinically relevant, accurate and comprehensive information. Surgeons will be use consistent processes to classify their patients’ surgical needs, patients will be ensured timely access to surgery, in relation to their need and with agreed time frames.

New clinical assessment tools for 12 surgical specialities were tested at hospitals across the province in 2005, with their full introduction starting in 2006. The specialties are cardiac, thoracic, orthopedic, general, oral, vascular and plastic surgery, as well as gynecology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, urology and neurosurgery.

These initiatives will provide patients with faster, more equitable access to the surgery they need. With this project British Columbia continues to lead other provinces in improving the medical system’s response to durgical demand.