Need a knee or hip replacement in Alberta? You’ll likely wait longer than most Canadians

Need a hip or knee replacement in Alberta? You’ll likely have to wait longer than most Canadians.

A new report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) released Thursday shows Albertans are waiting longer than the national average for both types of procedures.

The institute’s latest data looks at wait times for hip and knee replacements, hip fracture repair, certain cancer surgeries, as well as radiation therapy.

The data shows Alberta is only meeting the benchmark for wait times for a knee replacement for just under half of the patients who need it.

That compares to a 59 per cent national average, but only Ontario and BC meet the target more than Alberta.

For hip replacements, Alberta only meets the benchmark wait time for 59 per cent of patients, behind the national average of 66 per cent. The number is again worse in most other provinces, with Ontario, BC, and Manitoba being the only other places on par or better than Alberta.

Sean Chen is with CIHI and says the wait times for knee and hip procedures are still worse than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The wait times for hip replacements, knee replacements, and hip fracture repair are still longer than 2019,” he says.

Chen added that Albertans are also waiting longer than most for cancer operations.

“Patients from Alberta were three to six days longer waiting for most of the cancer surgeries,” he says.

The province is only hitting the benchmark for cataract surgery 61 per cent of the time — the national average is 70 per cent. The new data also found Albertans are waiting longer than the national average for a CT scan or an MRI.

However, Alberta does do a good job when it comes to keeping up with the rest of the provinces when it comes to radiation therapy. The province meets the benchmark wait time for 97 per cent of patients, compared to a 94 per cent national average.

The NDP says the report makes it clear the United Conservative Party’s contracts with private surgical centres are not helping like they were designed to.

The publicly reportable wait-time benchmarks were set by the country’s health ministers in 2004 for joint replacements, sight restoration, cancer treatment, cardiac care and diagnostic imaging.

Separate data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows that all-time high percentages of hip and knee replacement surgeries meeting the benchmarks were recorded back in 2010, and that average wait times have risen for most procedures over the years.

With files from the Canadian Press