Surgical Wait Times
There two types of waitlists.
The first waitlist is one that is created by orthopaedic surgeons and their availability to see a patient for an face-to-face appointment / consult. This appointment is to determine if a patient would benefit from a surgical procedure and the patient meets the medical criteria to safely withstand surgery.
Despite waiting to see a surgeon, it’s important to know that (a) there may not be a surgical procedure that can repair or restore an injured tissue and/or (b) the patient’s medical profile may be to risky to proceed with surgery. Only a surgeon can make this determination in their office.
The second type of a waitlist is the period of time between the date when a patient is offered surgery by a surgeon and when the date when the patient actually undergoes surgery.
It’s important to understand that the second waitlist is highly dependent on the availability of operating rooms in Canada. There may be situations where surgery may be cancelled or postponed due to a lack of an operating room and there may be situations where a patient cancels surgery at the last moment and another patient is offered surgery sooner.
Two ways to reduce your wait.
To reduce your wait for an initial appointment with a surgeon, patients are encouraged to request that your physician refer you to the next available surgeon. The option of seeing “next available surgeon” has been adopted in several provinces and has made a significant difference for patients (1).
To reduce your wait time for surgery, patients are encouraged to inform your surgeon and their staff, that you are flexible and would like to be put on a cancellation list to undergo surgery (1).