This document discusses wait times for pediatric care in Canada's healthcare system. It notes that wait times are a major concern, as prolonged waits can negatively impact children's health and development. Various factors influence wait times, including patient volumes and hospital capacity. The Canadian government has attempted to address wait times through initiatives like its 2004 10-Year Plan and associated Wait Times Reduction Fund. Additional investment is still needed to continue reducing wait times and meet increasing demand, especially for pediatric services which are critical for children's growth. Both public and private healthcare organizations must work to improve access through measures like expanding community programs and increasing healthcare resources.

1. H ealth_Care
Canada is facing the challenge of wait times in health care…explain how this problem can
be solved………………………………Wait Times for PediatricsWait times in health care can simply
mean to the time it takes for a patient to get treated in the particular hospital and more
specifically at emergency rooms. Waiting times in hospitals is a key concern to patients and
other health care stakeholders. Most health facilities are aware of this concern and are
constantly trying to improve on wait times. This discussion will focus specifically on wait
times for pediatrics in Canada. Just like in most countries, Canada faces the challenge of wait
times in health care. This situation cuts across patients of all ages, sex, and races even
though there might be small variation relating to the same. Children have not been spared
either in this situation since there is high level of health care sought for children. This is
because childhood stage requires many health care services in order to ensure that the
growth and development among children is enhanced and sustained. In aIDition,
considering the fragile nature of the health of children brought about by less developed
immunity system, there is need for prompt and adequate health care to be offered to them.
According to Davidson (2010), available data on the wait time and access of pediatric
services in Canada suggest that child health needs are often largely unmet. The wait times
are high in most of the children’ s health aspects such as on surgery, mental illnesses,
diagnostic imaging and cancer care among other health conditions. As a result of too much
time on wait lists for the children, the possibility of their health to be affected negatively
and their lives in general being affected is highly increased. Even though there is an
assumption that children receive care in health facilities on a priority basis, most of them
wait for services for certain duration, long or short. As Warnock (2005) notes, prolonged
wait for care is common in most of health care systems which are publicly funded. He
further notes that, in the light of this challenge, the Canadian Government made reducing
wait times a priority through various ways, most notably the 10- Year Plan to Strengthen
Health Care of 2004. This issue is important to health care in Canada as it will help
understand the problem, how it affects the children and society at large and the appropriate
management of the problem to ensure quality health care for children. The thesis statement
for the coursework is: Wait times for pediatrics in Canada are still a major challenge.Wait
Times as a ConcernTimely health care access has become most Canadians’ major concern.
Wait times is one of the key issues to health care timely access. According to Sanmartin et al
(2010), the definition of waiting times both internationally and within Canada are several.
There are three distinct waiting times: total waiting time, waits to receive services that are

2. hospital- based, and waits to see the specialist. As it can be observed, the waiting times’
differences are based on their definitions, that is, the time when waiting begins and when it
ends. According to them, total waiting time is the sum of the time taken to care for patient,
that is, from when he begins to seek care, in most cases marked by first visit to specialist
until the time the patient is fully treated. In regard to waiting times for hospital- based
services, waiting times have been defined as from the time the patient was booked for the
service like surgery and placed on the waiting list of the hospital to the time the service was
undertaken. Lastly, in relation to the waits for the specialist, waiting time is defined as the
time between primary care physician visit and the consultation by the specialist. Another
key term that needs to be defined in this discussion is pediatrics. Pediatrics refers to the
branch of medicine which is concerned with the medical care of children, adolescents and
infants Neil (2006). Therefore, in a nutshell, the concept wait times for pediatric mean the
time difference between when the health care services for children are sought and the time
when the treatment is administered.Factors affecting Waiting TimesAs has been noted
earlier, wait times for pediatrics is a common issue in the Canadian health- care systems.
Even though this issue is more evident in the public- funded health institutions where its
ramifications are widely reported, private health institutions also witness wait times for the
pediatrics. As HarIDorn et al (2008) observes, waiting times do not occur in a vacuum since
they are affected by several factors such as the number of patients, the number of urgent
cases or emergencies, and the capacity of the respective system. Waiting times for
pediatrics in Canada is a concern to virtually every authority and citizens in the country.
Wait times is uncalled for as it may result to more negative health implications to patients,
cause unnecessary pains to the patients, complicate the health situation of the patients,
might lead to death, and strain the financial resources of both the patients and the state. Due
to these ramifications, wait times among all patients and especially the children has turned
out to be a concern to most people in Canada. Wait times for pediatrics is of more concern
to the children and their parents or caregivers Blair (2005). Generally, the immunity system
of the children and especially the infants is not highly developed and any delay in giving
attention to the health problems when they arise may have detrimental effects not only to
the children- patients but also to their parents and society at large. Therefore, since it raises
major concerns in the country at large, both the public- funded health care systems and the
private- funded have given the need to reduce the wait times the utmost attention and
priority. As a matter of fact, most of health care facilities are drawing the attention of the
public at large on their capacity to offer timely health care services, thus, reducing the
concern that the potential clients may have regarding the wait times in these facilities. They
do this by letting the potential patients know of the adequate and competent health care
personnel they have, modern and appropriate equipments, and their general desire to offer
prompt and efficient health care services devoid of unnecessary waits. They also bring to
the attention of the patients that they are sometimes forced to consider specific cases of the
patients and the urgency that each case demands.Measures of Solving the Waiting
ProblemThe problem of wait times for the pediatrics varies in relation to the nature of
hospital (whether it is public- funded or private), the location (metropolitan or rural), and
the general capacity of particular health institution Esmail and Walker (2006). This problem

3. has thus attracted the attention of policy makers and health care managers. As a result,
these individuals and institutions have made several attempts to put in place measures that
can effectively aIDress this challenge. For instance, in order to aIDress this challenge the
Canadian government in 2004 formulated a 10- Year Plan which outlined the strategic
investments which were meant to be directed towards minimizing the waiting times for
health care access particularly for joint replacement, heart, sight restoration services,
cancer and diagnostic imaging Wright et al. (2011). In order to achieve this, the Federal
Government allocated $4.5 billion for the initial six years starting from 2004- 05 through
the Wait Times Reduction Fund. This fund aimed at augmenting the existing territorial and
provincial investments and help respective jurisdictions in their different initiatives to
minimize wait times. Katherine (2011) argues that it is the responsibility of any concerned
government to ensure that its policies and more so in health care are well formulated to
ensure quality and timely health care services to its citizens. She thus notes that the
Canadian government has made huge strides towards achieving this end. She cites the Wait
Times Reduction Fund where the Canadian government has allocated significant amount of
money as an example of the government’ s commitment towards ensuring quality and
timely health services to the Canadian citizens. However, Katherine cautions that such
investments should be continuous and not only within a given period of time. She attributes
the current wait time crisis especially among pediatrics to the fact that government paid
little attention to wait times reduction in the past. Therefore, there is need for the
government to continue investing in Wait Times Reduction Policy implementation in order
to eventually reduce and possibly eliminate wait times in health institutions. As a matter of
fact, this is appropriate considering that the Canadian population is increasing and demand
for health care services will definitely increase. Besides, more people demand quality and
timely health care services and it is important that their demands are met, especially among
the pediatrics since they are yet to develop high immunity system in aIDition to the fact that
quality and timely health care services is critical to their growth and development. That
notwithstanding though, private health industry players have a crucial role to play in
supporting the government’ s efforts in attaining this noble objective of quality and timely
healthcare services among the general public and pediatrics in particular.Reducing Waiting
TimesIn regard to wait times for pediatrics and how to reduce it, the pediatric departments
in different hospitals across the country in both the rural and metropolitan areas will be
bolstered through expansion of ambulatory and community care programs, training and
hiring of more health personnel, and enhancing other tools that manage pediatric wait
times Quinlan (2008). In aIDition, Statistics Canada’ s Access to Health Care Services in
Canada (HSAS) report was designed specifically to improve the government’ s
understanding of experiences, notably waiting times, of patients including the children
health services. The reports provide a comprehensive survey findings on self- reported
unmet health needs, access to family physicians, waiting care, and access to non- urgent
specialized services. Also, health managers of various health facilities have been trained on
the need for timely access to health care and the need for them to emphasize that in their
respective facilities. They are encouraged to share wait times innovation and learn from
each other. Reduction of wait times for pediatrics have been emphasized as well and the

4. managers concerned in the pediatric departments are putting emphasize on the
same.ConclusionIn conclusion, it is evident from the discussion that Canada is facing quite a
major challenge in regard to wait times in general and for pediatrics in particular. However,
it is worth noting that, Canada as country and when compared to most of the countries in
the world, it is performing exemplary well in wait times in its health care systems. It has
made major strides in reducing the wait times in most of the hospitals across the country
especially after the formulation and the start of the implementation of the already
mentioned 10- Year Plan. In isolation, though, and in the ultimate goal of providing timely
health care services to all patients and in all health facilities, there is a lot to be done. This is
because the urgency and importance of attendance to patients is essential in ensuring their
quick and expeditious recovery. This is more so in public- funded health care institutions
and those located in the rural areas. This paper has provided insights about the government
efforts in reducing the wait times and has acknowledged that indeed the government has
put commendable efforts. In the light of this insight, it is important to recognize the role of
other players who can also be equally important in ensuring that timely access to health
care services in Canada is eventually achieved. Therefore, the private sector, the civil
society, the religious organizations, the Non- Governmental Organizations, and the media
should join hand with the government by providing support according to their own
capacities in form of financial, human and material resources that will contribute to
reduction of wait times. Data has been found and observation made that complete
elimination of waiting times may not be ideal in recent times, but in the long- run significant
strides will have been achieved. REFERENCESBlair, K. (2005). Wait Times Affect
Kids Too. CMAJ, 173: 1486.Davidson, S. et al. (2010). Access and Wait Times in Child and
Youth Mental Health: ABackground Paper. The Canadian Association of Pediatric Health
Centers.Esmail, N., & Walker, M. (2006). Waiting Your Turn, Hospital Waiting Lists in
Canada. FraserInstitute. Retrieved from
http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/admin/books/chapterfiles/wyt2006.pdf , October 10,
2011Katherine, F. (2011). Health Care in Canada: A Citizen’ s Guide to Policy and
Politics.University of Toronto PressHaIDorn, C. & the Steering Committee of the Western
Canada Waiting List Project. (2008).Setting Priorities for Waiting Lists. Canadian Medical
Association Journal, 163 (7), 857- 860.Neil, S. (2006). Encyclopedia of Human Development.
Sage Publication.Quinlan, D. (2008). The Canadian Challenge. Canada: Oxford University
Press.Sanmartin, C. et al. (2010). Towards Standard Definitions for Waiting Times.
Retrieved fromwww.wcwl.org/media/pdf/library/published_papers.7.pdf , on October 10,
2011.Warnock, L. (2005). Meeting the Challenges of Reducing Waiting Times for Surgery.
CanadianJournal of Surgery, 48: 349- 353.Wright, G. et al. (2011). Development of Pediatric
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