Wait Times

On October 24, 2005 the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care launched a web site that publishes data on wait times for key surgical procedures at Ontario hospitals. Measuring hospital specific wait-times will give hospitals and the government a fact-and-evidence basis from which we can identify ways to increase efficiency and standardize best practices, and target funding to improve patient access.

By visiting the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care's wait times site, Ontarians can see how long patients are waiting for treatment in the five key services that are part of the government's Wait Time Strategy: cataract surgery, cancer surgery, hip and knee replacements, select cardiac procedures and MRI and CT scans.

Wait times are categorized on the website by procedure, hospital and Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) - beginning with data as of July 2005. This information is updated regularly.

The public release of this data is a positive step in our efforts to measure and reduce wait times and improve the quality of patient care. Our hospital is working hard to serve our patients well. At St. Joseph's, we have implemented a number of initiatives to help shorten wait times for all procedures and we will continue to evaluate our progress in this regard.