As the old saying goes, good things come to those who wait. Unfortunately, that is not helpful advice if you're waiting for surgery or an MRI. And it is particularly unhelpful when the provincial government manipulates the wait times data for political gain.
Among his 231 campaign promises, Premier McGuinty said he would reduce wait times. He subsequently launched a website to track wait times in Ontario. In Premier McGuinty's words the website would provide "unprecedented transparency, accountability and care."
Unfortunately, the Premier has not kept his word to patients on waiting lists.
The problem stems from the fact that the data on the website is controlled and published by the McGuinty government itself. Putting your faith in such an arrangement goes beyond the standard fox-guarding-the-henhouse predicament. Given Premier McGuinty's reputation for broken promises, trusting his wait times story is more accurately described as putting a vampire in charge of the blood bank.
It is just too tempting to fall back on bad old habits.
And taxpayers are feeling the bite out of their wallets. The McGuinty Government spent approximately $2 million on a slick advertising campaign to convince you wait times were coming down.
In December, the independent advertising watchdog, Advertising Standards Canada, ruled that McGuinty's newspaper and television wait time advertisements "made inaccurate claims and omitted relevant information contrary to Clauses 1 (a) and (b) of the Code" (Canadian Code of Advertising Standards).
Basically, it was false advertising.
That same month, Ontario's Auditor General also questioned the methods used by the McGuinty Government to calculate wait times calling them "misleading." The Auditor General said taxpayers should take any of the resulting statistics with a "grain of salt."
John Tory and the Ontario PC caucus similarly caught the McGuinty government red-handed in their attempt to manipulate the wait times website. When the Government's own data showed wait times increasing since July 2005, the McGuinty Government simply deleted the offending July 2005 numbers from the website altogether. McGuinty then recalculated the wait times data based on a set of numbers more favourable to the government.
Due to pressure from the opposition and the media, the embarrassing July information was quietly restored to the website, although squirreled away in a spot not readily visible to visitors nor utilized by the government.
Even the McGuinty Government's figures - presumably manipulated to look as good as possible - should cause concern. According to his website, wait times for many important procedures are up in the Hamilton-Niagara-Haldimand-Brant region. Since August 2005:
* Cancer surgery wait times up to 82 days from 64 days
* Cataract surgery wait times up to 273 days from 254; and
* MRI scan wait times up to 138 days from 124 days
All of us have had a friend or family member who had to wait far too long for a needed medical procedure. Certainly, Dalton McGuinty's $2 million misleading advertising campaign would have been better invested in nearly 3,000 additional cataract surgeries in the Niagara Health System as an example.
Ontario's health care system consumes 45 cents of every tax dollar spent on provincial programs. Any light we can shine on how that money is invested is helpful including wait times data. However, the collection and presentation of that data should be an arm's length from any individual or group who may be tempted to manipulate it.
Sadly, patients are still waiting for the truth from Dalton McGuinty when it comes to wait times.
Contact:
Tim Hudak
416-325-8454