Wait Time Targets

At the 2004 First Ministers’ Meeting (FMM), the premiers and prime minister agreed to support The 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care, a strategy to improve public health care across the country. This group acknowledged that access to timely care is a high priority for Canadians and must be made a national priority. First Ministers committed to reducing wait times in five priority areas: cardiac surgery, vision restoration, orthopaedics, diagnostics, and cancer treatment.

In 2005, the First Ministers set eight evidence-based national benchmarks (medically acceptable maximum wait times). It was agreed that by December 2007, each province and territory would define access targets for the five priority areas, while recognizing the different starting points, priorities and strategies in each province and territory. Access targets are the percentage of cases expected to receive treatment within the national benchmark time frame.

In 2007, B.C. established access targets for all five priority areas. These can be found at the bottom of this page.

Patient Wait Time Guarantee

The federal government, in its 2007 budget, established a patient wait time guarantee trust (trust). B.C. received $76.4 million from the trust to establish, by March 31, 2010, a patient wait time guarantee to improve access to radiation therapy for cancer patients and to improve upon B.C.’s surgical patient registry (SPR). In B.C., the BC Cancer Agency (BCCA) and Provincial Health Services Authority in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, provide radiation therapy services. B.C. is meeting the wait time guarantee through processes in place at the BCCA and the SPR has been established as a province-wide information system that improves surgical wait list management.

B.C. Access Strategy

To meet the FMM commitments, B.C. developed and implemented a thorough, proactive and evidence-based strategy, incorporating national and international best practices. The B.C. Access Strategy involves not only a commitment to reduce wait times in the five priority areas; it also aims to improve access for all surgical procedures.

The B.C. Access Strategy uses a “systems approach,” which acknowledges that changes made in one area of the health care system can impact the wider system. A systems approach seeks to identify these impacts in advance and mitigate risks and maximize opportunities.

The B.C. Access Strategy focuses on improvements in four areas:

1. Organization and Structure – Using evidence to improve clinical, administrative, and managerial practices.
   Examples include:
   
   • Expert Panels: Clinical, administrative, and research leaders in a specialty area come together to provide advice to government on possible ways to improve patient access. British Columbia has held expert panels in several priority areas, including musculoskeletal health and cataract surgery.
   • Surgical Access Conference: Over 280 clinicians, administrators, and researchers attended the “Access to Surgery in B.C. – The Cutting Edge” conference in January 2009. Participants learned from regional, national, and international speakers on surgical access improvement projects. A conference report is available here.
2. Patient Management – Enhancing the availability and quality of data to improve patient experiences and assist clinicians and administrators to actively manage wait lists.
   Examples include:
   • Developing and implementing the Surgical Patient Registry: a comprehensive, provincial information system.
   • Assessing a patient’s acuity using provincial, standardized assessment tools; and,
   • The launch of a new Public Surgical Wait Times website that provides the public with accurate, timely and useful wait time information and resources
3. Health System Accountability – Develop infrastructure to assess performance and inform decision making.
   Examples include:
   
   • Annual performance management documents between the Ministry and the health authorities clarify agreed upon roles and expectations.
   • Developing multi-year, health authority specific targets aligned with the First Ministers’ Meeting commitments.
4. Governance – Providing leadership and policy direction and fostering innovation through targeted investments in key surgical areas.
   Examples include:
   
   • Health Innovation Funding in 2007/08 supported innovative pilot projects across the province. The projects were focused on improvements across the continuum-of-care.
   • The Lower Mainland Innovation and Integration Fund provides incentives for Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health to seek efficiencies through innovation and integration of existing and new services.
   • A new B.C. Health Innovation Website was launched in the summer of 2009, highlighting pilot projects in the area of health service delivery.