Wait times and public solutions

Private health care proponents say that private clinics will help reduce wait times in the public system, but this is simply not true. Health care practitioners cannot be in two places at once.

Creating a private, for-profit system will take much-needed doctors, nurses, radiologists and other health care workers out of our public system. Given that we already have a shortage of health care workers, allowing for-profit health care to grow will only increase wait times in the public system.

What we need is planning, investment and innovation within the public system.

The public system has already begun to respond to the issue of wait times. Waits have been reduced in facilities across the country like the Queensway Clinic in Toronto, the Pan-Am Clinic in Winnipeg, and the Capital Health Authority in Edmonton. These, and other examples, demonstrate that effective solutions to wait times can be found within the public system.

Resources:

• Fact sheet: Five things you should know about wait times
• Fact sheet: Wait time success stories in the public system