I’m posting this in IMHO, rather than GQ. I expect to get factual answers, but I know they may vary. What I DO NOT WANT is this to degenrate into a discussion of Gov’t Health Care. There’s already a thread about that, http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=329138#post6449275
which is why I’m here.
The following was offered in that thread:
My question is-- Canadian female dopers, when it’s time for you to get a pap smear, how long does it take? Do you have to call your GYN 5 months ahead? I’m not interested in political answers. Just the facts. Are mammograms scheduled 2.5 months ahead?
I get my pap smear at my GP. I can call a few days or a week ahead, it’s not one of the things that you have to wait for.
If you were going for a yearly routine mamogram, you would probably wait, but it would be more like booking in advance. I could get a breast exam any time I wanted from my doctor. I wouldn’t be shocked if a mamogram were booked 8 weeks in advance.
I’m not sure where the pap smear info comes from. In 1992, I did not wait that long for a pap smear either. And I would not trust the Frasier institute. I’d look for another source to compare those numbers with.
Pap smear - done in walk-in clinic - probably have to wait up to two hours.
I haven’t had a mammogram done yet, but I did have a CT scan a couple of weeks ago - it was done the same week it was booked.
Booking appointments with a family doctor (if I could find one who is taking new patients, who didn’t have a staff of gold-plated bitches) - probably about two weeks.
Hip replacement at 10 month wait wouldn’t surprise me. Apparently, Calgary has a terrible survival rate for heart problems because the waits for heart surgery are so long. Calgary is a very strange mix of good and bad healthcare right now.
My best friend’s mother recently fell and broke her hip. She’s of advanced years and certainly could have been made comfortable for an extended period to await surgery. She was under the knife within a few days. She lives in the country near a small city outside of Montreal (Sherbrook), Quebec. She had a choice of Montreal or Sherbrook and chose the latter for poximity and quieter setting during recovery.
My elderly aunt has had a couple of hip replacement surgeries. They were not emergencies and were scheduled to fit in with her schedule. No hassles. No delays when scheduled dates came around. She lives in Montreal.
Maybe on the pap smear they mean the time it takes to get results? The implication seems to be that they are horribly backed up, and that could be in the lab, not the office. In the U.S., I usually get pap results in a week to ten days, (I think–I don’t pay that much attention). Is that the norm in Canada?
I’m not female, but Mrs. RickJay is, and we recently A) got a new doctor and B) subsequently got pregnant.
So far everything has been pretty damn quick, like next week for anything routine and “come in at 2 PM” if we need to see him right away. There’s only been one problem so to be honest we never NEED to see them next day, and our work schedules wouldn’t allow it anyway, so I don’t have much of a data sample to go on. The one time she needed to see him ASAP, it was three hours later that he saw her.
I think lab results are done by private firms anyway. MDS is a huge player in that field.
Now, my father did have to wait five months to have a knee replaced (It might have been four or maybe it was six, but five is my best guess.) Granted, he wasn’t that bad off, he was still walking and such. And the results were amazing; up and walking in less than two days. A new kind of procedure. Still, he did have to wait.
To get an appointment with my GP, usually 4 months. This isn’t actually a big deal - I always book them so I have check-ups a year apart, and anything that can’t wait for a few months can be dealt with either at a school clinic or a public clinic.
Within a week, if it was urgent they would fit me in that same day. I waited 5 weeks for gall-bladder surgery, but was living in a very small town with only two surgeons.
Within a few days, I can get an appointment with my doctor. For my last mammogram, I had to wait 6 weeks, but there’s no history of breast cancer in my family. Had there been, my gynecologist could have gotten me the test sooner.
Recently I had a problem which caused me some worry, and I was scheduled for a scan three days later.
I haven’t had any problems, but my family doctor is very good at getting things to move for his patients. Unfortunately, he’s not taking any new patients.
Yep, just adding my own experience in here, like everyone else has said, a couple days to a week for a pap, results within the week. I’ve never had a mammogram, but my mother and grandmother usually book an appointment and get in in under a month.
(When I lived in NB, Canada, of course, not here).
The quote given in the OP: In Canada the wait for hip replacement surgery is nearly 10 months; for a mammogram, 2.5 months; for a pap smear, 5 months
…is from a report done for the Cato Institute. Its objective is to show that government-funded medical care is “dangerous”, and that we ought to seek more equitable health care via the free market. Not surprising, then, that it reflects extreme cases and not the experiences of everyday Canadians.
An appointment with my family doctor sometimes takes a week or two, but frequently only a couple days. All the experiences I’ve had with hospitals have been good, and I haven’t had any delays. I’m young and in good health, though, so I haven’t been in hospital a lot.
My best friend’s husband, who has a genetic disease that has necessitated a LOT of hospitalization throughout his life (he’s 23, and has had open heart surgery, kidney surgery, collapsed lungs, and a bunch of other stuff), has said that Canadian health care is marvellous if you don’t have anything seriously wrong with you, but less wonderful if you’re in generally poor health. My guess is that delays and backups happen more frequently with serious medical procedures than with ordinary GP things.
In Ontario, ICES (Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences) is neutral, is staffed by world experts in Health Policy and Epidemiology, and has access to huge databases.
Here is one link wherein the folks at ICES state that the wait time for hip replacement surgery is 25 weeks and that for knee replacement about 32 weeks.
Services in Canada are very uneven and what you get depends on where you live. I work in an emergency department and in theory should have quick access to lots of services. In practice, it is not unusual for patients with an acute problem to wait 2 or 3 days before seeing a psychiatrist, patients to wait several months to remove a gallbladder, or to wait months to see a specialist for a mild to moderate problem.
In my area, waits for colonoscopy or cardiac surgery are low. I could get a mammogram ordered done in a week or two. I can get quick CTs – in Newmarket, the wait for a routine CT is six months. Services for severe problems are much quicker.
Waits for pap smear are low, nowhere near five months. Hip replacement is a lot longer, unless a hip fracture is involved. There is indeed a service problem in Canada, but people who need urgent service usually get it. The doctor’s view of how long you can wait for an elective operation often differs from the patient’s!
My parents and grandmother live in a city with a two hospitals, one a very large teaching hospital, and the service they’ve recieved, and that I got when I was still living there, is just exceptional. When my best friend moved from there to California, he reported that the speed and quality of medical services he received had nose-dived, even though he had a good job with what was supposedly a good health plan.
But it’s easy to get great service in a city with a disproportionate amount of hospital. In a city without a big university and a teaching hospital, I’ll bet the service would be inferior.
Still, 5 months for a Pap smear? Pure fiction. My wife got one next week. Her best friend had some issues and saw a GYN within two days. Why would it possibly take five months? Maybe in Alert.
I’m in the US - land of quick & fancy health care, right? - and I live pretty much right next to the biggest and most advanced health care center within about 150 miles in all directions. We’re the regional hub for health care, and the hospital and various clinics around town are huge and modern.
I recently waited 3 months to see a dermatologist. Pap smear at my GP’s office? Probably a 2 month wait to get in.
As was said, it all depends on what you a) have wrong with you, b) live, and c) need to have done to you and by whom.
RickJay dealt with point B. I’ve never been in a position to evaluate the wait times for major medical conditions, thank Og, except that when my dad collapsed and started seizing due to brain cancer they began treating him right away when he got to emergency (obviously); but when I received minor but worrisome burns due to frying pork with my shirt off, or when my then-BF broke out in hives, it took a few hours longer.
I have a family doctor and I can usually see him that day or the next day if the condition is sufficiently alarming (but not alarming enough to go to the emerge); on the other end of the scale, scheduling a regular physical takes about two weeks to a month and it takes about another week or so to get my bloods back.
The longest I’ve ever had to wait for medical service was when I made an appointment with an audiologist. I made the appointment in September and saw her in March. Scarce speciality + non-urgent condition = long wait.
With regard to where you live, there is an ongoing trend around Calgary to go outside the city for things like knee replacements. I have heard of people going to Canmore (a small town about an hour’s drive away from Calgary) for their knee replacement because it could be done in the small hospital there months earlier than could be arranged in Calgary. It’s a rich tapestry.