How to speed up seeing a surgeon and reducing wait times.
When you see your family physician ask them to request “the next available surgeon” in their referral letter to a surgeon.
Evidence in Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan all show that asking to be seen by the next available surgeon patients can be seen within weeks or months.
How?
Surgeon workloads differ. Some surgeons have long queues; others have immediate capacity. Pooling allows a patient to access the unused capacity in the system.
For joint replacements, patients who wait longer often have worse pre-op function, which is associated with slower rehabilitation and sometimes poorer post-op outcomes.
The Bottom Line
Requesting to be seen by the “next available surgeon” generally leads to:
✓ Shorter wait for consult
✓ Shorter wait for surgery
✓ Less deterioration while waiting
✓ More efficient use of system resources
✓ Comparable clinical outcomes for standard orthopaedic procedures