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Written by Dirk Meissner, THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Wednesday, 06 August 2008 |
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VICTORIA - Six months is the longest anybody in British Columbia should have to wait for medical treatment, says a B.C. Medical Association report released Wednesday.
The medical association delivered an eight-point policy report to the B.C. Liberal government that calls for six-month maximum wait times, more acute-care beds to meet patient needs and regular public reporting on the numbers of beds available and how the province is managing the numbers.
The Health Ministry issued a statement saying it welcomed the report, but countered by saying it has been increasing acute-care beds across the province annually.
"Nobody should be waiting more than six months for anything," said Dr. Shelley Ross, co-author of the report Improving Access to Acute Care Services.
Ross is also chairwoman of the medical association's council on health economics and economic policy.
"Six months is enough," she said, adding she doesn't think B.C. is alone in facing unacceptable wait times.
"I think it's just as bad across Canada as it is here."
But Ross said if the B.C. government adopts the medical association's report, it would become the only province in the country with a maximum wait-time policy.
Health Minister George Abbott said in an interview that British Columbia is almost finished delivering the 5,000 residential and assisted living beds that his government had promised.
"We're now about 4,500 of the 5,000 that we promised, (and) by the end of 2008, I'm sure in the months ahead, we'll be celebrating 5,000. That will help us take some of the load off the acute care as well as building the acute care capacity itself."
But the 11,000-member association called for a flexible supply of acute-care beds to accommodate population changes and seasonal fluctuations.
"We need to make sure that beds are a bit flexible, because you can never say we need exactly so many beds," said Ross.
"We need to look and see different times of year, like the winter time when people are definitely sicker with infectious diseases."
The numbers of available acute-care beds must be able to expand to meet those periods when more people need help, she said.
The medical association's report includes statistical data that shows a decline in the number of available acute-care beds in British Columbia for every 1,000 people over the past 17 years.
A graph tracking acute care-bed levels from 1991 to 2008 showed a drop from more than 3.5 beds for every 1,000 people in 1991 to about 1.8 beds in 2008.
"The doctors of B.C. say 'Let's work with the government,"' Ross said. "We're not pointing fingers, saying 'It's your fault, you need to fix it.' We need to work together, because we want our patients to be taken care of."
The Health Ministry issued a written statement saying the government has been working to maximize the use of every available acute-care bed in the province by training more doctors and nurses.
"The BCMA correctly notes that we have been introducing meaningful maximum wait times for specific procedures - beginning with cancer treatment and hip and knee replacements," said the ministry statement.
"It's important to note that half of all surgeries in British Columbia are never wait-listed as they are performed on an emergency-urgent basis."
New Democrat health critic Adrian Dix said the report reflects the trying conditions under which many doctors and hospitals are operating in British Columbia.
"The shortage of acute-care beds is really affecting the quality of health care," he said. "It affects it at every level."
Dix said health authorities in the Vancouver and Fraser Valley areas reported they were short about 650 acute-care beds.
He said hospitals in growing areas of the province like Kelowna and Surrey are running over capacity due to bed shortages.
The medical association report concluded the government needs to work harder at providing more acute-care beds.
"B.C. is experiencing difficulties in providing hospital care in a timely manner due, in part, to significant cuts in the number of acute-care beds over the past decade," the report said.
Ross, a family physician in suburban Vancouver, said it's not uncommon for a patient to wait up to one year for cataract surgery.
"If you're 85, and you're waiting for a year, that's a good percentage of the life remaining."
The Health Ministry said in a statement the wait time for cataract surgery in British Columbia is more like two months, not a year, as Ross suggested.
The ministry also said it's difficult to compare the number of acute-care beds provided in each province because each province measures it differently.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 06 August 2008 )
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