“We wait in emergency departments. We wait to see family physicians. We wait for tests, procedures and surgeries. We even wait to get out of hospital…” In a recent article published online entitled “How to solve Canada’s wait time problem,” Dr. Chris Simpson, practising physician and acting dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, discusses the issue of extremely long wait times within the Canadian health care system. He is an advocate for seniors’ care, and Demand a Plan was launched during his tenure as president of the Canadian Medical Association.

Dr. Simpson discusses how wait times are a symptom of a larger problem and outlines how to address the underlying issues to find “a cure for the problem rather than just treat the symptoms.” In his discussion of how to fix the system as a whole, he highlights how the wait time problem affects the senior population in particular and suggests that a national seniors strategy would effectively acknowledge the changing landscape of health care, which is largely driven by Canada’s aging population.

Read the full piece here: https://theconversation.com/how-to-solve-canadas-wait-time-problem-96170