National Paediatric Surgical Wait Times Strategy

Paediatric Surgical Wait Time Guarantee Initiative

On January 11th, 2007 Prime Minister Harper announced $2.6M in support of a national paediatric Wait Time Guarantee pilot project. The 16 paediatric health sciences centres from across the country will participate in the development of a national information system that will identify children who are waiting longer than the acceptable time for surgery.

The goals of this initiative will be to develop a national surgical wait time information system that will:

• Provide the data needed to support informed treatment decisions. 
• Provide recommendations for improving and monitoring the management of paediatric surgical wait times
• Identify what works and what doesn’t in terms of recourse options, and develop a plan for children whose wait times are beyond acceptable targets in any of the six pilot areas
• Identify areas for improvement and submit recommendations to government.