Province Announces Plan to Manage Hospital Wait Times

The Nova Scotia Minister of Health today, Jan. 27, announced steps to help ease the pressure on hospital wait times and emergency overcrowding. He also released a provincial report about how to collect standardized wait time information.

"We have recognized wait times as an issue for some time now," said Health Minister Angus MacIsaac. "The measures I am announcing will lead to improvements in managing wait times across the province."

The minister said the Department of Health would provide funding to Halifax's QEII Health Sciences Centre to open 25 surgical beds and an additional operating room.

"The increased beds and operating room capacity was a long-term recommendation to address emergency overcrowding and long waits for hospital services, and will certainly help meet the need for more orthopedic surgery at the QEII," said Mr. MacIsaac.

"Wait time pressures aren't just felt in the capital district, that's why we are expanding our orthopedic capabilities outside of the capital region with the addition of another orthopedic surgeon in the Pictou County Health Authority," said Mr. MacIsaac.

Nova Scotia has taken a provincewide approach to availability of orthopedic surgery, concentrating the service in four district health authorities across the province: Capital Health District Health Authority, Pictou County District Health Authority, Annapolis Valley District Health Authority and Cape Breton District Health Authority.

"The Arthritis Society is pleased the Department of Health is addressing the issue of managing wait times," said Maureen Fraser McLaughlin, managing director of The Arthritis Society, Nova Scotia Division. "Access to timely orthopedic surgery for debilitating bone and joint problems is essential for patients across the country, not just here in Nova Scotia, and we are encouraged by the measures being proposed by the Department of Health."

Wait times for health-care services was highlighted as a priority in Your Health Matters -- Nova Scotia's report and strategy for the health-care system, published in February 2003. Part of the challenge in dealing with wait times, however, has been that there is limited standardized information on wait times in the province.

In April 2003, the Department of Health established a steering committee and working groups to determine what data needs to be gathered regarding provincial wait times and how it should be collected. They focused on three main areas: surgical services, with a beginning focus on orthopedic services; diagnostic services, such as MRI and CT scans; and referrals from general practitioners to specialists.

The committee's report was released by the minister today. The committee has recommended standards for wait time definitions, standards to determine the urgency of a case and a method to collect data.

"It is important for us to look at what needs to be done across the province for wait times," said Mr. MacIsaac. "We need to be able to gather the information in a systematic way in order to make good, informed decisions about how to address wait lists' pressures and to be proactive in managing system demand."

Nova Scotia is also taking that approach to planning for its MRI requirements. The Department of Health has asked Dr. Michael Barry, a radiologist in Saint John, N.B. and the former head of radiology in the Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation, to report by the end of this fiscal year on Nova Scotia's future MRI requirements.

"Dr. Barry comes highly recommended by the Nova Scotia Association of Radiologists, and we look forward to his recommendations," said Mr. MacIsaac.

The minister said some of the best work in establishing information for wait times on orthopedic surgery is being done in Nova Scotia. He said the committee's recommended model for collecting orthopedic wait time information is largely based on work already being done by the Capital District Health Authority.

In addition, the minister also reported that progress has been made to open up long-term care beds in the Halifax Regional Municipality in order to transfer patients currently in hospital. Thirty-three long-term beds will be made available within the next several weeks. This will free up beds within the QEII for the admission of medical and surgical patients.

"With the systemwide and provincewide planning measures we have introduced over the last few years, we are able to respond quickly to pressures in the system to ensure we have the right service in the right place at the right time," said Mr. MacIsaac.