Although establishing wait-time guarantees was quietly lifted from the Conservative government's list of five priorities in recent months, federal Health Minister Tony Clement told delegates to the 139th CMA Annual General Meeting in Charlottetown, PEI, Aug. 21, that the Canadian government must make progress in setting wait-time guarantees “lest Canadians turn to the courts to oversee the management of our health care system.”
The Supreme Court of Canada's landmark Chaoulli decision last June has introduced a new legal dimension to providing timely health care, explained Clement.
“If we don't get our act together there will be litigation-based prescriptions … a process that is slow, adversarial and expensive.”
Clement argued that the federal wait-time strategy aims to offer publicly funded “recourse” mechanisms to Canadians lingering on wait-lists. It would allow patients to seek “alternative sources of care — either by another provider, another facility or another jurisdiction” in the event of delays. Patients can trigger such recourse by consulting an ombudsperson or an administrative tribunal.
Clement envisions a system where patients are put on a centralized waiting list, appointments are clustered together, electronic callbacks are automatic, and patients have access to a patient navigator.
A navigator is intended to “remove some of the burden” from physicians but if it proves ineffective, it'll be abandoned.