Canadian society: cardiac care is under-represented in wait strategy:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
The Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS - Ottawa) has criticised Canada's wait time alliance (WTA) report (see Clinica No 1253, p 15) as failing to provide "the big picture of cardiac care". The WTA adopts a benchmark only for cardiac bypass surgery (CABG - which received the desirable "A" grade). However, there is a whole spectrum of services surrounding cardiac care, such as the wait time to see a cardiologist, to have relevant tests, or to obtain rehabilitation services, as well as other, more common, cardiac operations such as angioplasty, which is twice as common as CABG in Canada, says the CCS. By considering only CABG, "governments are not making a meaningful and positive impact on wait times for Canadians", said Dr Blair O'Neill, chair of the CCS' access to care working group. "What we'd like to see is the full spectrum of cardiac care benchmarks adopted by all provinces," said Dr Chris Simpson, co-chair of the working group.