National Priority Area Wait Times
Canada's First Ministers identified five priority areas for improvement in wait times - cancer, joint replacements, vision, cardiac surgery, and diagnostic imaging. Each year provinces are measured against these national benchmarks. The results below show Nova Scotia's results in the 2012 Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) report on wait times for the national priority areas.In Nova Scotia our focus is on reducing all wait times and making life better for families in every region.
| Five National Wait Times Priority Areas | National Benchmarks | Nova Scotia* |
|---|---|---|
| Cancer | Radiation therapy within four (4) weeks | 83% of patients within the benchmark. See current Radiation therapy wait times |
| Cardiac | Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) within 26 weeks | 100% of all patients within the benchmark. See current Coronary Artery Bypass Graft(CABG) |
| Vision | Cataract surgery within 16 weeks for patients who are at high risk | 65% of all cataract surgery patients within the benchmark. See current Cataract surgery wait times |
| Joint Replacements | Hip replacements within 26 weeks | 62% of all hip replacements within the benchmark. See current Hip replacements wait times |
| Knee replacements within 26 weeks | 44% of all knee replacements within the benchmark. See current Knee replacements wait times | |
| Diagnostic Imaging | A national benchmark has not yet been developed for CT scans and MRI's |
MRI exams completed in a median wait time of 52 days and a 90th percentile wait time of 135 days.
See current MRI wait times
CT scans completed in a median wait time of 20 days and a 90th percentile wait time of 74 days. See current CT Scan wait times |
| *based on patients who received treatment from April 1 - September 30, 2011 | ||