Priority Areas

In 2004, all ten provinces committed to the 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care. This commitment includes improving access and reducing wait times in five priority areas: cancer treatment, cardiac surgery, diagnostics, vision restoration, and orthopaedics.

The following information provides both B.C.'s current status and historical information for priority procedures in these five areas. For more on the B.C. Wait Times Strategy, see Wait Times Targets.

NOTE: Regarding Cardiac Surgery Statistics, over half of all cardiac surgeries are not elective and therefore not captured in the statistics shown here. In addition, cardiac bypass surgeries are only done at four BC facilities. Due to small volumes and priority levels with unique benchmarks, cardiac bypass surgery data may not be representative of the actual number of cases waiting beyond the benchmark.

Current Wait Time Statistics

Surgical Patient Registry

Priority Area	Cases Waiting as of 31-Jan-2012	For Cases Completed 01-Nov-2011 - 31-Jan-2012
Priority Area	Cases Waiting as of 31-Jan-2012	Procedures Completed	50% received services within (weeks)	90% received services within (weeks)
Cataract Surgery	11,900	12,454	6.7	25.0
Hip Replacement	2,203	1,309	15.0	31.9
Knee Replacement	4,172	1,706	17.9	36.1

Cardiac Services BC

Priority Area	Cases Waiting as of 31-Dec-2011	For Cases Completed 01-Oct-2011 - 31-Dec-2011
Priority Area	Cases Waiting as of 31-Dec-2011	Procedures Completed	50% received services within (weeks)	90% received services within (weeks)
Coronary Artery Bypass Graft	74	121	4.0	8.9
Priority 1 (within 2 weeks)	0	< 5	0.4	0.4
Priority 2 (within 6 weeks)	9	24	3.0	8.1
Priority 3 (within 26 weeks)	64	96	4.3	9.9
Priority Unknown	< 5	0	N/A	N/A

BC Cancer Agency

Priority Area	Cases Waiting as of 31-Dec-2011	For Cases Completed 01-Aug-2011 - 31-Oct-2011
Priority Area	Cases Waiting as of 31-Dec-2011	Procedures Completed	50% received services within (weeks)	90% received services within (weeks)
Radiotherapy	237	2,922	1.1	3.4

Long-Term Wait Times Statistics

Surgical Patient Registry

	Cases Waiting	Procedures Completed	50% received services within (weeks)	90% received services within (weeks)
All Procedures
2001/02	37,436	194,804	4.1	23.9
2002/03	66,543	205,664	4.1	23.4
2003/04	71,363	208,809	5.0	25.1
2004/05	77,418	212,346	4.9	25.9
2005/06	73,579	231,436	4.0	23.0
2006/07	75,775	237,963	4.0	22.9
2007/08	76,663	238,370	4.4	23.9
2008/09	74,405	232,045	5.0	23.9
2009/10	70,953	210,122	5.3	24.9
2010/11	71,783	216,501	5.4	26.0
Cataract Surgery
2001/02	11,571	26,265	9.0	29.0
2002/03	13,838	28,453	8.7	29.9
2003/04	11,774	29,821	10.9	32.6
2004/05	15,253	29,050	9.4	28.4
2005/06	14,175	35,014	7.1	27.3
2006/07	13,984	35,208	7.3	25.0
2007/08	13,699	39,500	8.3	26.0
2008/09	13,881	43,941	7.9	25.1
2009/10	12,890	47,175	6.7	25.7
2010/11	14,159	49,404	7.7	23.7
Hip Replacement
2001/02	1,875	2,273	18.7	48.0
2002/03	2,390	2,378	17.0	51.9
2003/04	2,915	2,846	20.1	61.3
2004/05	2,919	3,115	22.1	68.0
2005/06	2,481	3,524	16.8	64.7
2006/07	2,235	4,246	13.3	50.4
2007/08	2,113	4,065	11.1	41.4
2008/09	1,641	4,524	10.1	37.4
2009/10	1,633	4,478	10.7	30.0
2010/11	1,992	4,600	12.6	28.7
Knee Replacement
2001/02	2,816	2,449	25.4	62.9
2002/03	3,896	2,835	22.8	68.7
2003/04	4,849	3,285	28.7	77.4
2004/05	5,416	4,041	28.9	79.1
2005/06	5,133	4,646	25.0	81.3
2006/07	4,734	5,797	19.9	73.6
2007/08	4,446	5,900	17.0	57.1
2008/09	3,412	6,804	13.1	44.3
2009/10	3,295	6,461	12.4	37.9
2010/11	3,890	6,867	14.9	34.2

Sources:

2001/02 to 2008/09: SWIFT, November 2010 snapshot
2009/10: SWTP, June 2010 snapshot
2010/11 onward: SWTP, May snapshot after the end of each fiscal year
Management Information Branch, Planning and Innovation Division, B.C. Ministry of Health

*Notes:

Starting in 2009/10, wait times data are adjusted to account for patient unavailable periods.

BC Cancer Agency

	Cases Waiting	Procedures Completed	50% received services within (weeks)	90% received services within (weeks)
Radiotherapy
2005/06	205	10,846	0.9	N/A
2006/07	229	9,704	0.9	N/A
2007/08	334	11,110	0.9	N/A
2008/09	332	11,183	1.0	N/A
2009/10	398	11,667	1.1	N/A
2010/11	261	11,946	1.1	3.4

Sources:

BC Cancer Agency, Provincial Health Services Authority

Cardiac Services BC

	Cases Waiting	Procedures Completed	50% received services within (weeks)	90% received services within (weeks)
Coronary Artery Bypass Graft
Priority 1 (within 2 weeks)
2001/02	11	30	6.9	23.6
2002/03	15	35	6.1	24.7
2003/04	6	57	7.9	28.1
2004/05	7	28	4.4	14.0
2005/06	8	28	5.5	20.0
2006/07	< 5	29	6.3	20.1
2007/08	< 5	42	4.8	12.9
2008/09	0	15	5.0	20.3
2009/10	< 5	5	1.0	6.4
2010/11	0	11	1.4	4.1
Priority 2 (within 6 weeks)
2001/02	283	560	14.7	32.5
2002/03	313	579	13.7	35.1
2003/04	187	691	11.9	34.9
2004/05	121	501	7.3	26.7
2005/06	186	530	7.7	20.8
2006/07	170	579	10.0	27.4
2007/08	111	632	7.9	22.0
2008/09	< 5	93	4.4	13.7
2009/10	7	102	1.9	5.9
2010/11	8	109	2.9	7.3
Priority 3 (within 26 weeks)
2001/02	116	145	21.9	37.4
2002/03	124	138	21.5	62.4
2003/04	85	160	25.1	54.4
2004/05	38	74	21.2	61.0
2005/06	25	56	10.6	25.7
2006/07	28	35	13.6	32.1
2007/08	10	41	14.0	32.0
2008/09	22	521	6.0	16.4
2009/10	41	451	3.0	10.1
2010/11	66	470	3.1	10.9

Sources:

BC Cardiac Registry, Cardiac Services BC, Provincial Health Services Authority

*Notes:

Starting from April 1, 2008, percent of coronary artery bypass grafts (CABGs) waiting longer than the established time frame are evaluated based on the national priority categories developed in response to commitments made at the First Ministers' Meeting in 2004. The established benchmarks for each of these categories are: priority I <2 weeks, priority II <6 weeks and priority III <26 weeks.
The priority categories prior to 2008/09 are based on BC definitions and are not directly comparable to the categories defined nationally. Data should be interpreted with caution.



Application Version: 1.0.357