>> >> When people talk about waiting lists for MRIs, they are talking about >> Ontario; > > >How many years ago was this?
Here is some interesting information about this. Health Canada, a federal department, regularly publishes a series of surveys of the health care system in Canada based on Canadians first hand experience of the health care system, see http://www.healthcoalition.ca/index-eng.pdf In general, although life threatening cases are dealt with immediately, some services needed are non urgent and patients are seen at the next available appointment in their local chosen facility. The median wait time in Canada to see a special physician is a little over four weeks with 89.5% waiting less than 3 months. My mother was able to see a specialist in a week. The median wait time for diagnostic services such as MRI and CAT scans [34] is two weeks with 86.4% waiting less than 3 months. Again, my mother was able to get her first MRI in less than a week, and her second in about 10 days. The median wait time for surgery is four weeks with 82.2% waiting less than 3 months. My mother did not have surgery so I cannot compare that experience. So in other words the wait time for Canada is only a bit longer than in the US in some special cases. That said my own recent experience with the Canadian system comes from my time in BC last October during the last couple of months of my mother's life. During that time, she was seen almost immediately by specialists and had all the appropriate tests without any real waiting time (1 week for her 2nd MRI). Our family had no complaints about the care she had, it was quite excellent. My friends and relations in western Canada generally have experienced the same, little or no waiting time. There may be some waiting time on occasion, but only for non-emergency or elective procedures. At this point the propaganda I've seen in the media that have attacked the Canadian system are outright lies. I thought there were laws about truth in advertising. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:302672 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
