Abstract

Ontario's Wait Time Strategy (Strategy) - launched in November 2004 - is designed to improve access to healthcare services in the public system by reducing the time that adult Ontarians wait for services in five areas by December 2006: cancer surgery, cardiac revascularization procedures, cataract surgery, hip and knee total joint replacements, and MRI and CT scans (Trypuc et al. 2006a). Since the Strategy began, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (Ministry) has provided significant additional funding to perform more cases with the full understanding that improving access by reducing wait times is not simply a matter of providing more money to do more volumes.2 Rather, fundamental system and practice changes are needed to sustain improvements over the long term.