Delays in specialized service
Delays also extend to more specialized services, an issue that became personal for Dr. Ballermann when her then 82-year-old father faced a three-year wait for hip replacement surgery. Knowing that the lag time could lead to severe neuromuscular degeneration that would impede her father's recovery, Dr. Ballermann considered taking her father out of the country where she could pay for faster service. She eventually found a way within the Canadian system to get her father his surgery within six months, but she can understand why small factions of practitioners and patients throughout Canada have lobbied for the right to provide and obtain private health care, even though such actions go against the spirit of the Canada Health Act.
At the University of Alberta, Dr. Ballermann and her colleagues have established a triage system. Patients requiring urgent care might be seen that same day or within a week, and a person with a non-urgent condition might wait up to two months for an appointment. “But you would never wait longer than three months. We have limits built in,” she said.
Another problem with the Canadian system, she said, is that it stifles innovation and removes “some of the incentives to do better.” Compared with Canada, the U. S. provides more opportunity to conduct innovative research, supported by both government and industry. “There's a greater innovative spirit. It's just part of the U.S. culture.”