The Fraser Institutes annual report "Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada" listed PEI as having the longest total waiting time for specialist physician services. While the annual survey of waiting lists is a generally positive effort, the measures for PEI can be misleading.
The report is based on waiting times for non-emergency services. "I am concerned that people may hear a story on this report and wrongly assume that they will not be able to get emergency services when needed, whereas this is not the case," said Dr. Don Ling, Medical Director for the Department of Health and Social Services.
This is a self-report based on the responses of 16 physicians out of a total of 31 possible physicians in the 12 specialities surveyed. Therefore, the response of a particular physician in this year's survey, that did not respond the previous year, may cause large fluctuations in the measure of waiting times without any change in the services Islanders receive. While this survey method is appropriate for Ontario, it is clearly inappropriate for PEI. The authors mentioned this sample size problem but reported the data despite this.
The report lists PEI as having the longest waiting times to see a specialist after referral by a General Practitioner (GP), with a weighted median of 13.2 weeks. However, this was almost entirely due to the wait for appointments with ophthalmologists. In fact, PEI led the country in having the shortest wait lists for general surgery and medical oncology according to the Fraser Institute report, although again the accuracy of the figures for PEI is questionable.
In terms of wait from the specialist appointment to treatment, PEI had the 5th longest waiting times of the 10 provinces with a median wait of 6.5 weeks.
The report assumes that the median wait for surgery represents the wait a patient would necessarily face whereas this is not so. If one physician has a wait list of 6 weeks and another has a wait list of 22 weeks because of a better established practice, the median wait would be listed as 14 weeks whereas a patient could actually get an appointment in 6 weeks.
The report does indicate that, as with most provinces, PEI has some challenges to face. The wait list for appointment to ophthalmologists is very long and the waiting times for treatment in plastic surgery and orthopaedic surgery are considerably longer than desirable. It should be noted that four specialities not found on the Island were, of course, not measured for PEI patients.
Appropriate access to health care is an ongoing interest to all Islanders, including those directly involved in the provision of those services. All involved parties must continue to seek ways to continuously improve the health of Islanders.