Health and Community Services
May 1, 2007

Straight As for Newfoundland and Labrador in Wait Times Report Card

Newfoundland and Labrador received an A grade according to the report card released on April 19 by the Wait Time Alliance for Timely Access to Health Care. The progress report assesses the progress of provincial and territorial governments in achieving wait times benchmarks within the five priority areas, as agreed upon by Provincial/Territorial Ministers of Health in December 2005 under the 2004 Ten-year Plan to Strengthen Health Care.

"We have made significant investments over the past three years which are clearly making an impact on wait times across our province," said the Honourable Ross Wiseman, Minister of Health and Community Services. "Most importantly, this means that we are succeeding in our efforts to improve timely access to health care services for our residents."

According to the grading methodology, a grade of A means that between 80 to 100 per cent of the population is treated within the national benchmark for the areas of hip and knee replacement, cancer treatment, sight restoration and cardiac care. The report card also recognizes Newfoundland and Labrador as one of only three provinces to report trends in wait times by procedures and one of the few provinces to consistently report performance on a quarterly basis in terms of the percent of patients treated within the benchmark.

Budget 2007 allocated a 10.3 per cent increase for the health and community services budget to $2.2 billion. Several investments to further improve wait times were announced including $2 million in operating funds to improve access to health services; $22.3 million for new diagnostic and capital equipment; and $2.65 million over two years, matched by Canada Health Infoway, to provide telehealth services for chronic disease management.

Additionally, the Provincial Government recently announced that it would establish a patient wait time guarantee for cardiac surgery by March 2010.

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Media contact:
Tansy Mundon
Director of Communications
Department of Health and Community Services
709-729-1377, 685-1741
tansymundon@gov.nl.ca

2007 05 01                                                     10:25 a.m.

 


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