Minister Pleased with Report that Places Provincial Wait Times Among the Best in Canada

The Honourable Susan Sullivan, Minister of Health and Community Services, is pleased with a recent wait times report released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. The report shows that Newfoundland and Labrador is outperforming many other provinces in Canada in its wait times, and remains second overall in the five priority areas of radiation treatment, cardiac bypass surgery, cataracts, hip and knee replacement, and hip fracture repair. On average, 86 per cent of patients in the province accessed care within the recommended time frames.

“Our government has worked diligently to reduce and sustain wait times in the province by investing in operating room utilization initiatives, central intake assessment clinics and the implementation of two wait time reduction strategies,” said Minister Sullivan. “We are very pleased with the findings of this national report, which clearly demonstrates that our investments and commitment are paying dividends for the people of the province.”

The Canadian Institute for Health Information’s annual report, Wait Times for Priority Procedures in Canada, reported that Newfoundland and Labrador is the highest in the country with 88 per cent of hip fracture repairs performed within the 48-hour benchmark. The province also performed 81 per cent of knee replacement surgeries within benchmark, which is above the national average of 75 per cent. Newfoundland and Labrador is one of only two provinces that showed improvement over three years in meeting the key joint replacement benchmarks.

“We have made tremendous advances in improving wait times for replacement surgeries in Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Minister Sullivan. “A key driver of this improvement is the implementation of the provincial wait times strategy for hip and knee joint replacements, and increased Provincial Government funding to complete additional joint replacement surgeries.”

The Provincial Government has invested over $140 million over the past eight years to improve wait times throughout the province. This includes the establishment of a new Access and Clinical Efficiency Division within the Department of Health and Community Services to focus on wait time improvement strategies for the province.

For more information regarding provincial wait times in Newfoundland and Labrador, visit: www.gov.nl.ca/health/wait_times. 

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Media contact:
Scott Barfoot
Director of Communications
Department of Health and Community Services
709-729-1377, 690-6290
scottbarfoot@gov.nl.ca 

2013 03 21                             10:45 a.m.