April 18, 2008

TORONTO - Ontario is the national leader in reducing wait times for five priority health services, according to a new report card issued by the Wait Time Alliance (WTA).

For the first time, the WTA gave Ontario the highest grades - Straight As - for meeting performance targets in reducing wait times in five areas: hip replacements, knee replacements, cataract surgery, radiation oncology and cardiac services. No other province reached this achievement. The report card indicates that Ontario improved performance in all categories.

While there is still work to do in areas like MRI and CT scans, Ontario's tracking makes it a leader in these categories as well. Most provinces do not track wait times for MRI and CT scans. In addition, Ontario has more than doubled scan volumes over the last four years and shown modest wait times improvements.

This is the third annual report card from the WTA, which is comprised of several national medical specialty societies, including the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the Canadian Association of Radiologists, whose members are directly involved in providing care to patients.

"The Wait Time Alliance report card clearly shows Ontario is at the top of the class in Canada when it comes to reducing wait times across the board," said George Smitherman, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. "These straight As demonstrate the tremendous progress we have made since 2005 in improving access to health care services for Ontarians. We have unlocked the knowledge of leadership necessary in this area and we intend to focus further on emergency room wait times."

• Since 2005, wait times in Ontario for cataract surgery has been reduced by 61.4 per cent, knee replacement by 41.6 per cent, and hip replacement by 36.2 per cent.
• Ontario's wait times for cardiac bypass surgery are well within the national access target.

Find out more about wait times for health services in Ontario.

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