Northern Health wait times below national average for key procedures

Although improving, over 30 per cent of patients in Northern Health are still waiting longer than the benchmark standard for wait times when it comes to hip and knee replacements.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information has collected stats on Canada’s health systems, which dates back to 2014.

While the numbers may suggest the region has improved from 2017 to 2018 in ensuring patients are receiving treatment within the benchmark wait times, the numbers haven’t shown much improvement for the entire duration in which CIHI has covered the data.

Benchmark wait times are based on clinical evidence where a patient has better outcomes if they received that procedure in that time limit.

In the case of knee replacements, 79 per cent of patients received the required surgery within the 182-day benchmark in 2015. Over the course of the next few years, those numbers dipped to 54 per cent in 2016 and 57 per cent in 2017, before rising to 69 per cent last year.

Hip replacement surgeries saw a much larger jump in patients receiving their surgeries last year. In 2017, only 36 per cent of patients received their procedures within the benchmark, which is also set at 182 days. That number shot up to 64 per cent in 2018.

75 per cent of Canadians are said to have received hip replacement surgery under the benchmark period.

“Our numbers continue to rise, and we’re improving the wait times because of the investments we’ve made, specifically in knee and hip surgeries,” said Northern Health spokesperson Steve Raper. “We’ve actually made some big progress in some areas and we’re continuing to see that, and are continuing to push towards meeting the targets that have been set out.”

The region has been making sizable investments into UHNBC, and other facilities in the area, as a way to ensure they continue an upward climb in attending to patients that keeps them under the benchmark waiting period.

Northern Health was unable to answer whether or not the numbers from last year included catch-up procedures from the previous two years, in which the region had over 50 per cent of its patients waiting longer than anticipated. However, they did state they have been working on increasing their number of patients attended to.

“Through investments the government had made, and through the work we are doing with our surgeons and in our facilities to increase capacity to do more hips and knees,” said Raper. “We’re making a lot of progress in that space and we expect that we’re going to make significant progress over the next year as well.”

Northern Health states it’s progress being made, but add they are continuing to work towards meeting targets that have been put in place by the ministry.

Jennifer Frood, spokesperson from CIHI said, “The Northern Health rating will reflect those procedures done in the north, not necessarily the patients from the north.”

She adds that some patients from Northern BC may receive their surgery elsewhere in the province, in which those procedures would not be included in Northern Health’s ratings.