Waiting your turn : Waiting your turn : 2014 report

To obtain the provincial medians (displayed in the last row of tables 2, 3, 4, and 8), the twelve specialty medians are each weighted by a ratio—the number of procedures done in that specialty in the province, divided by the total number of procedures done by spe- cialists of all types in the province. [...] Chart 10 provides information on the current number of patients waiting for surgery, the Fraser Institute’s estimates of the number of procedures for which patients are waiting, and the number of procedures completed in the 90 days preceding April 30, 2014. [...] Chart 11 shows the ministry’s published waiting times, the “expected” waiting time for the next patient placed on the waiting list using the num- ber of patients waiting, and the number of procedures actually provided weekly, and the Fraser Institute’s median waiting time measurements. [...] However, the number of patients waiting for treatment would have to drop to about half of the current reported level, on average, in order for the min- istry’s measurements of waiting times to be consistent with the number of patients waiting and procedures being performed. [...] In other words, the true patient experience in British Columbia likely lies somewhere between the “expected” wait estimated above and the wait time reported by the ministry, which is precisely where the wait times and estimates of procedures for which patients are waiting produced by the Fraser Institute generally lie.