Chemo waits unchanged
May 8, 2008
Joseph Hall
HEALTH REPORTER
Wait times for radiation and cancer surgery continue to fall impressively across Ontario.
But the health system is barely keeping up with chemotherapy demand, screening rates are far from ideal and people are still engaging in too many activities that carry cancer risks.
That is the decidedly mixed message found today in the Cancer System Quality Index, Ontario’s annual report card on the disease.
“We’ve made some really good progress in a number of areas,” said Michael Decter, chair of the Cancer Quality Council of Ontario, which compiles the report that was released this morning.
In particular, Decter said, median wait times for cancer surgery fell by 17 per cent, from 24 days to 20 days, between August 2005 and December of last year.
That is the amount of time on average it takes 50 per cent of patients to have surgery after the decision to perform it is made.
Even those waiting the longest for surgery, the lowest 10 per cent, saw their wait times drop 30 per cent, from 81 days to 57 days, over the same period.
As well, Decter said, wait times for radiation treatments continue to fall, although the success of improved access programs is not uniform across the province.
Still, 83 per cent of people needing radiation received it within nationally recommended time frames in 2007.
That is a 30 per cent improvement over a three-year period, said Terrence Sullivan, head of Cancer Care Ontario.
But much more needs to be done, Decter said, particularly in personal behaviour modifications that could help reduce the 50 per cent of cancers that are deemed preventable.
“We think there are a number of things that people can do that they’re not yet doing,” said Decter.
“Smoking rates have come down, but there are other risk factors, exposure to sun, diet, alcohol consumption and exercise that are all still problematic and in some cases going the wrong way.”
For example, the report says that 32 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women report drinking more than recommended by the so-called “low risk” alcohol guidelines.
Meanwhile, one third of Ontario’s adults and children - 43 per cent of men and 33 per cent of women - spend unprotected time under the summer sun.
Sullivan, whose group contributed to the report, said it also shows that doctors are improving on the completeness and accuracy of their cancer reporting.
thestar.com
Featured Sponsored Listings