Monday, May 15, 2006

Wait times in Canada spur new industry: medical travel agencies

The Canadian Institute for Health Information has released its first survey on health care wait times, reported here in CMAJ. The wait for hip and knee replacement was reported to be around 3 months---quite a long time, but shorter than I had previously heard.

Meanwhile, companies such as Timely Medical Alternatives are responding to Canadians’ frustration with waiting lists by booking more rapid treatment in nearby U.S. hospitals. Another company, MedSolution.com, is sending patients to India and France because of lower costs in comparison to the U.S. (Reported here in the same issue of CMAJ).

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