Canada is facing  the challenge of wait times in health care…explain how this problem can be solved………………………………

Wait Times for Pediatrics

Wait times in health care can simply mean to the time it takes for a patient to get treated in the particular hospital and more specifically at emergency rooms. Waiting times in hospitals is a key concern to patients and other health care stakeholders. Most health facilities are aware of this concern and are constantly trying to improve on wait times. This discussion will focus specifically on wait times for pediatrics in Canada. Just like in most countries, Canada faces the challenge of wait times in health care. This situation cuts across patients of all ages, sex, and races even though there might be small variation relating to the same. Children have not been spared either in this situation since there is high level of health care sought for children. This is because childhood stage requires many health care services in order to ensure that the growth and development among children is enhanced and sustained. In addition, considering the fragile nature of the health of children brought about by less developed immunity system, there is need for prompt and adequate health care to be offered to them. According to Davidson (2010), available data on the wait time and access of pediatric services in Canada suggest that child health needs are often largely unmet. The wait times are high in most of the children’s health aspects such as on surgery, mental illnesses, diagnostic imaging and cancer care among other health conditions. As a result of too much time on wait lists for the children, the possibility of their health to be affected negatively and their lives in general being affected is highly increased. Even though there is an assumption that children receive care in health facilities on a priority basis, most of them wait for services for certain duration, long or short. As Warnock (2005) notes, prolonged wait for care is common in most of health care systems which are publicly funded. He further notes that, in the light of this challenge, the Canadian Government made reducing wait times a priority through various ways, most notably the 10- Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care of 2004. This issue is important to health care in Canada as it will help understand the problem, how it affects the children and society at large and the appropriate management of the problem to ensure quality health care for children. The thesis statement for the coursework is: Wait times for pediatrics in Canada are still a major challenge.

Wait Times as a Concern

Timely health care access has become most Canadians’ major concern. Wait times is one of the key issues to health care timely access. According to Sanmartin et al (2010), the definition of waiting times both internationally and within Canada are several. There are three distinct waiting times: total waiting time, waits to receive services that are hospital- based, and waits to see the specialist. As it can be observed, the waiting times’ differences are based on their definitions, that is, the time when waiting begins and when it ends. According to them, total waiting time is the sum of the time taken to care for patient, that is, from when he begins to seek care, in most cases marked by first visit to specialist until the time the patient is fully treated. In regard to waiting times for hospital- based services, waiting times have been defined as from the time the patient was booked for the service like surgery and placed on the waiting list of the hospital to the time the service was undertaken. Lastly, in relation to the waits for the specialist, waiting time is defined as the time between primary care physician visit and the consultation by the specialist. Another key term that needs to be defined in this discussion is pediatrics. Pediatrics refers to the branch of medicine which is concerned with the medical care of children, adolescents and infants Neil (2006). Therefore, in a nutshell, the concept wait times for pediatric mean the time difference between when the health care services for children are sought and the time when the treatment is administered.

Factors affecting Waiting Times

As has been noted earlier, wait times for pediatrics is a common issue in the Canadian health- care systems. Even though this issue is more evident in the public- funded health institutions where its ramifications are widely reported, private health institutions also witness wait times for the pediatrics. As Harddorn et al (2008) observes, waiting times do not occur in a vacuum since they are affected by several factors such as the number of patients, the number of urgent cases or emergencies, and the capacity of the respective system. Waiting times for pediatrics in Canada is a concern to virtually every authority and citizens in the country. Wait times is uncalled for as it may result to more negative health implications to patients, cause unnecessary pains to the patients, complicate the health situation of the patients, might lead to death, and strain the financial resources of both the patients and the state. Due to these ramifications, wait times among all patients and especially the children has turned out to be a concern to most people in Canada. Wait times for pediatrics is of more concern to the children and their parents or caregivers Blair (2005). Generally, the immunity system of the children and especially the infants is not highly developed and any delay in giving attention to the health problems when they arise may have detrimental effects not only to the children- patients but also to their parents and society at large. Therefore, since it raises major concerns in the country at large, both the public- funded health care systems and the private- funded have given the need to reduce the wait times the utmost attention and priority. As a matter of fact, most of health care facilities are drawing the attention of the public at large on their capacity to offer timely health care services, thus, reducing the concern that the potential clients may have regarding the wait times in these facilities. They do this by letting the potential patients know of the adequate and competent health care personnel they have, modern and appropriate equipments, and their general desire to offer prompt and efficient health care services devoid of unnecessary waits. They also bring to the attention of the patients that they are sometimes forced to consider specific cases of the patients and the urgency that each case demands.

Measures of Solving the Waiting Problem

The problem of wait times for the pediatrics varies in relation to the nature of hospital (whether it is public- funded or private), the location (metropolitan or rural), and the general capacity of particular health institution Esmail and Walker (2006). This problem has thus attracted the attention of policy makers and health care managers. As a result, these individuals and institutions have made several attempts to put in place measures that can effectively address this challenge. For instance, in order to address this challenge the Canadian government in 2004 formulated a 10- Year Plan which outlined the strategic investments which were meant to be directed towards minimizing the waiting times for health care access particularly for joint replacement, heart, sight restoration services, cancer and diagnostic imaging Wright et al. (2011). In order to achieve this, the Federal Government allocated $4.5 billion for the initial six years starting from 2004- 05 through the Wait Times Reduction Fund. This fund aimed at augmenting the existing territorial and provincial investments and help respective jurisdictions in their different initiatives to minimize wait times. Katherine (2011) argues that it is the responsibility of any concerned government to ensure that its policies and more so in health care are well formulated to ensure quality and timely health care services to its citizens. She thus notes that the Canadian government has made huge strides towards achieving this end. She cites the Wait Times Reduction Fund where the Canadian government has allocated significant amount of money as an example of the government’s commitment towards ensuring quality and timely health services to the Canadian citizens. However, Katherine cautions that such investments should be continuous and not only within a given period of time. She attributes the current wait time crisis especially among pediatrics to the fact that government paid little attention to wait times reduction in the past. Therefore, there is need for the government to continue investing in Wait Times Reduction Policy implementation in order to eventually reduce and possibly eliminate wait times in health institutions. As a matter of fact, this is appropriate considering that the Canadian population is increasing and demand for health care services will definitely increase. Besides, more people demand quality and timely health care services and it is important that their demands are met, especially among the pediatrics since they are yet to develop high immunity system in addition to the fact that quality and timely health care services is critical to their growth and development. That notwithstanding though, private health industry players have a crucial role to play in supporting the government’s efforts in attaining this noble objective of quality and timely healthcare services among the general public and pediatrics in particular.

Reducing Waiting Times

In regard to wait times for pediatrics and how to reduce it, the pediatric departments in different hospitals across the country in both the rural and metropolitan areas will be bolstered through expansion of ambulatory and community care programs, training and hiring of more health personnel, and enhancing other tools that manage pediatric wait times Quinlan (2008). In addition, Statistics Canada’s Access to Health Care Services in Canada (HSAS) report was designed specifically to improve the government’s understanding of experiences, notably waiting times, of patients including the children health services. The reports provide a comprehensive survey findings on self- reported unmet health needs, access to family physicians, waiting care, and access to non- urgent specialized services. Also, health managers of various health facilities have been trained on the need for timely access to health care and the need for them to emphasize that in their respective facilities. They are encouraged to share wait times innovation and learn from each other. Reduction of wait times for pediatrics have been emphasized as well and the managers concerned in the pediatric departments are putting emphasize on the same.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident from the discussion that Canada is facing quite a major challenge in regard to wait times in general and for pediatrics in particular. However, it is worth noting that, Canada as country and when compared to most of the countries in the world, it is performing exemplary well in wait times in its health care systems. It has made major strides in reducing the wait times in most of the hospitals across the country especially after the formulation and the start of the implementation of the already mentioned 10- Year Plan. In isolation, though, and in the ultimate goal of providing timely health care services to all patients and in all health facilities, there is a lot to be done. This is because the urgency and importance of attendance to patients is essential in ensuring their quick and expeditious recovery. This is more so in public- funded health care institutions and those located in the rural areas. This paper has provided insights about the government efforts in reducing the wait times and has acknowledged that indeed the government has put commendable efforts. In the light of this insight, it is important to recognize the role of other players who can also be equally important in ensuring that timely access to health care services in Canada is eventually achieved. Therefore, the private sector, the civil society, the religious organizations, the Non- Governmental Organizations, and the media should join hand with the government by providing support according to their own capacities in form of financial, human and material resources that will contribute to reduction of wait times. Data has been found and observation made that complete elimination of waiting times may not be ideal in recent times, but in the long- run significant strides will have been achieved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES

Blair, K. (2005). Wait Times Affect Kids Too. CMAJ, 173: 1486.

Davidson, S. et al. (2010). Access and Wait Times in Child and Youth Mental Health: A

Background Paper. The Canadian Association of Pediatric Health Centers.

Esmail, N., & Walker, M. (2006). Waiting Your Turn, Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada. Fraser

Institute. Retrieved from http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/admin/books/chapterfiles/wyt2006.pdf , October 10, 2011

Katherine, F. (2011). Health Care in Canada: A Citizen’s Guide to Policy and Politics.

University of Toronto Press

Haddorn, C. & the Steering Committee of the Western Canada Waiting List Project. (2008).

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Neil, S. (2006). Encyclopedia of Human Development. Sage Publication.

Quinlan, D. (2008). The Canadian Challenge. Canada: Oxford University Press.

Sanmartin, C. et al. (2010). Towards Standard Definitions for Waiting Times. Retrieved from

www.wcwl.org/media/pdf/library/published_papers.7.pdf , on October 10, 2011.

Warnock, L. (2005). Meeting the Challenges of Reducing Waiting Times for Surgery. Canadian

Journal of Surgery, 48: 349- 353.

Wright, G. et al. (2011). Development of Pediatric Wait Time Access Targets. Canadian Medical

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