Waiting for medical treatment costs billions, says report
A new report from the Fraser Institute indicates health care wait times in Canada are costing Canadians more than $1 billion in lost time in productivity.
The report, the Private Cost of Public Queues, was released Wednesday.
It uses data from the Fraser Institute’s annual survey of hospital wait times. Those numbers suggest that Canadians waited an average of 9.5 weeks, from an appointment with a specialist to receiving treatment in 2011, which is up slightly from 9.3 weeks in 2010.
The report then calculates how much money people lose from waiting for medical treament when they would otherwise be working.
In 2011, 941,000 people in Canada lost an estimated $1,100 while waiting for medical treatment.
When taking into account hours outside of the work week, including evenings and weekends, the estimated cost rises to about $3,490 per patient and close to to $3.29 billion in total.
"Patients waiting for surgery suffer both physically and emotionally, which diminishes their ability to participate fully in their lives both at work and at home," said Nadeem Esmail, author of the report.
In Alberta, the average lost income per person during the work week was $1,300. That number rises to $3,900 when taking into account hours outside of the work week.
