It's not just "elective" procedures like orthopedic surgery that Canadians wait for - as the defenders of the government-run system like to say - but critical, life-or-death treatment for cancer: Bladder surgery wait time unsafe
Quebec bladder cancer patients are dying unnecessarily because of increasing delays in treatment, a leading urologist said yesterday.
The death rate among patients stuck waiting 12 weeks or longer for surgery jumped by 20 per cent from 1990 to 2002, said Armen Aprikian, chief urologist of the McGill University Health Centre.
"A 20-per-cent increase in the death rate is huge," said Aprikian, whose Quebec-wide study on bladder cancer is published in this month's Journal of Urology.
"It's clear some patients are waiting beyond the safety margin."
8 Feb 2006 @ 1:46pm