Open Letter to the Public: BC Patients Deserve Access to Timely Specialized Care

 

May 14, 2025

As of late 2024, over 1.2 million British Columbians are languishing as they wait to see a Specialist Doctor, a 20% increase from 1 million in 2022.

From Cardiology to Oncology, Specialist wait times are a vital indicator of the health of our system. Patients and their families are enduring uncertainty, pain, hospitalization and even disability as they wait for care. Patients with cancer care suffer with delayed access to Specialty Care as almost all diagnosis and initial treatments (including surgeries) of new cancers are done by Specialists. Increasing wait times to see Specialists delays cancer diagnosis and treatment leading to avoidable suffering and deaths. Long wait times to see Specialists contribute to overcrowded Emergency Departments, redundant Specialist referrals, and added strain on Family Doctors. Rural communities face even greater challenges, with more barriers to Specialty Care and longer wait times - a gap that must be further measured and addressed.

The Scope of the Problem

Survey data from late 2024 from Specialists across BC paints a troubling picture:

  • Wait Times: Patients with urgent referrals take approximately one month, while patients with semi-urgent issues wait an average 10 weeks but may extend up to 18 weeks for internal medicine and gastroenterology. Non-urgent referrals are the most alarming, with patients waiting an average of 10 months, and in some cases patients waiting years to see a Specialist.
  • Waitlist Sizes: Many waitlists now contain hundreds of patients, with Dermatology averaging 1,166 patients, Orthopaedic Surgery 556, Allergy and Immunology 539, and Urology 365. Alarmingly, many of these patients may never receive care.
  • Deteriorating Access: The majority of Specialists report that waitlists and wait times have “increased significantly” over the last two years. A staggering 93% state that BC lacks a sufficient number of Specialists, with certain specialties—including Gastroenterology, Geriatric Medicine, Infectious Disease, Neurosurgery, Plastic Surgery, and Radiology—unanimously reporting inadequate staffing.
  • Specialist Concerns: 79% of Specialists believe BC residents lack adequate access to Specialist care, and 86% prioritize reducing wait times as a critical need.

Proposed Solutions to Improve Access to Specialists 

cSBC is ready to collaborate with the Ministry of Health on actionable solutions that can deliver both immediate and long-term impacts:

  1. Investment in a Comprehensive Waitlist Project: This initiative has already been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.  It will identify geographical and specialty-specific pressure points, enabling targeted investments. It will also introduce tools for funded waitlist management and new written advice options so that Specialists can better support patients under the care of their Family Doctor.
  2. Consultant Specialist Team Care (CSTC) Expansion: Increasing capacity of our existing Specialist work force by integrating allied healthcare providers into Specialist outpatient clinics.
  3. Improved Rural Outreach Support: Expanding Specialist services in underserved rural areas so that patients can receive the Specialty Care they need in their communities.
  4. Adequately Staffed Hospitals: Ensuring hospitals have appropriate staffing (physicians and allied health) to meet the needs of British Columbians to reduce Emergency Department closures, cancelled surgeries and prolonged hospitalizations.
  5. Increased Residency Training Positions: Substantially increasing residency opportunities and investing in the education of new trainees is essential to ensuring we have the Specialist workforce we need to meet patient demand in the coming decades.
  6. New Payment Models: Providing Specialists with flexible compensation options tailored to their practice and patient needs. Increased choice in compensation model will attract new Specialist Physicians to BC and will help ensure that all Specialist services are available for BC residents when they need them.
  7. Enhanced Specialist Clinic Resources: Increased point-of-care testing at the time of Specialist consultation to facilitate efficient diagnosis and treatment planning and avoid other, more expensive and time-consuming investigations, which costs the system more and leads to further patients waiting for care.

Share Your Story: 

It is clear by the wait time issues British Columbians cannot take access to Specialist care for granted. We encourage  you to share your experiences waiting for Specialist Doctors with your BC MLA (Members of the Legislative Assembly | Legislative Assembly of BC). Share your experience with us by using the QR code below (https://consultant-specialists-of-bc.kit.com/0180194f6d)

On behalf of the Consultant Specialists of British Columbia (cSBC), which represents Specialist physicians in BC, and patients across the province, thank you for your support.

Sincerely,
Robert Carruthers, MD, FRCPC
President, cSBC

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