Universal healthcare systems outside of Canada have managed to reduce their surgical backlogs by incentivizing greater efficiency through alternative funding models and using the private sector, according to a Fraser Institute study. .“Canadians were already dealing with record-long medical wait times before the COVID-19 pandemic, which exacerbated an already bad situation,” said Fraser Institute senior fellow and study co-author Yanick Labrie in a Tuesday press release. .Recent estimates show more than 500,000 Canadians were waiting for treatment at the beginning of 2023. .The study said as COVID-19 cases began to rise in 2020, medically necessary treatments were postponed in Canada due to the pandemic, leading to longer wait lists and a growing backlog of elective surgeries. .The Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranked Canada last out of 11 comparable, high-income healthcare systems based on timeliness of access to care in 2020. .OECD said 62% of Canadian patients reported waiting less than four months for elective surgeries. There were 71% of Swedish patients, 72% of Brits, and 87% of Dutch people who received their surgeries within four months. .The study said those countries adopted a number of policy reforms to improve access to care for populations. .It said those include giving private care providers a more active role with delivering care within the public system and increasing available capacity to clear surgical backlogs. .The countries publish information on wait times and quality and allow patients to compare and choose providers — including private hospitals — for their publicly funded treatments. .They shifted away from fixed health budgets for hospitals and moved towards activity-based funding, which ensures money follows the patient. By making patients no longer a source of expenses in a fixed budget, but rather one of additional revenue, the funding schemes encourage providers to deliver quality services to attract more people. .“In order to reduce wait times for Canadian patients — which are longer because of the pandemic — policymakers should look to other universal healthcare systems that incentivize greater efficiency and have added capacity to the universal health system through the use of private care providers,” said Labrie. .“As these international examples show, it's possible to have universal healthcare that provides timely access to care for patients, which is not the case in Canada today.”.Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney announced in September the provincial government would be expanding contracts with chartered surgical facilities in central and southern Alberta to reduce wait times and deliver about 2,600 more surgeries closer to home..READ MORE: Kenney says Alberta government is expanding access to surgeries and reducing wait times.Alberta Health Services would aim to schedule an additional 1,350 surgeries in the Central Zone and about 1,250 more procedures in the South Zone by inviting chartered surgical facilities to submit proposals..“Albertans are waiting too long for hip and knee replacements and other types of surgeries,” said Kenney.
