The minister described the move as a necessary one to reduce wait times for B.C. cancer patients while the province works to build up its own capacity to meet the expected surge in demand for cancer treatment in the coming years…
“Using this additional available capacity beyond a patient’s B.C. health authority in Bellingham will help BC Cancer reduce radiation therapy wait times for breast and prostate cancer patients,” Dix said.
The minister explained that these two groups are the largest populations receiving radiation treatment in B.C. They also tend to have fewer mobility issues than patients with other types of cancer…
Dix noted during his announcement that sending patients to the U.S. for treatment is not unprecedented.
Looking at the propaganda again? Your report says 50 each week…possibly the same 50 for weeks.
Highlights include: Cancer remains the leading cause of death in Canada. An estimated 2 in 5 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime and about 1 in 4 will die from cancer. In 2021, an estimated 229 200 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer and 84 600 will die from cancer.
As a “thought leader” whined a few years ago, words to the effect “why doesn’t anyone come here from Norway? People only come here from poo-hole countries”
Because, Shiny-land, with it’s violence, brutality, exorbitant health care costs, with outcomes that aren’t that good, and exorbitantly expensive higher education, is not that appealing, compared to Norway. That is why it seems Shiny-land is being overrun with brown people. The place only looks good compared to places like Guatemala.
How many of those cases are really critical, vs something like seeing a urologist about a bent ummm, the Fool said my first choice was verboten, let’s say “bent member”.
I suppose it depends upon how much pain you are in.
At any rate, things are not moving in the right direction. From the Fraser Institute’s latest annual report, "Waiting for treatment has become a defining characteristic of Canadian health care…This year’s wait time [27.4 weeks] is the longest wait time recorded in this survey’s history and is 195% longer than in 1993, when it was just 9.3 weeks.
Waiting by specialty
Among the various specialties, the shortest total waits exist for radiation oncology (3.9 weeks), medical oncology (4.4 weeks), and elective cardiovascular surgery (16.4 weeks). Conversely, patients wait longest between a referral by a GP and neurosurgery (58.9 weeks), plastic surgery (58.1 weeks), and orthopaedic surgery (48.4 weeks). The largest increases in waits between 2021 and 2022 have been for neurosurgery (+25.8 weeks), plastic surgery (+24.1 weeks), orthopedic surgery (+14.3 weeks), and gynecology (+8.1 weeks). Such increases are partially offset by decreases in wait times for patients receiving treatment in fields like radiation oncology (−0.7 weeks), and otolaryngology (−0.3 weeks).
I have to wait 2-3 months to see opthalmologist, neurologist, and endocrinologist. I no longer need to see urologist because I pushed (LOL!!) to get essentially cured–and it worked (outpatient surgery during The Recent Plague).
Who would have thought Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland are so much better than the US. I thought that the medical field in the US has always told us they were better and that is why we pay more. Looks like another fable.
I remember Tim commenting that the German health care system was not very good. However another former resident of this board, a Brit, who moved across the channel, and uses the French system, said the French system is excellent.
There are some distinct differences in wait time between seeing your GP, and seeing a specialist.
Wait times to see a specialist. Interesting how the US is so poor, when it comes to seeing a GP, but is relatively speedy at getting you into the arms of an expen$ive specialist.
Well, I suspect that most of those venturing to Mexico for medical treatments aren’t actually going for “healthcare”…say, affordable lifesaving treatment for the uninsured … but rather cheaper rates for elective stuff like plastic surgery, liposuction and the like with a few days vacation thrown in if everything turns out OK. If.
In many of the countries, everyone there can see a specialist, in some countries like the USA, there is no waiting for a specialist, because they cannot see any doctor.
