Reply #6: No

[Canadiana]

Well, it depends on the procedure, where you are in Canada etc.
Things that take a while here: non-urget...MRIs, colonoscopies, some surgeries (mostly orthopedics such as knee and joint surgeries)

Things that do not take a long time: seeing a doctor. You have one of several options in most towns. You can:
a) see your doctor. If it is something urgent, he or she will likely fit you in that day or the next.
b) go to an after hours clinic. If you cannot see your gp, or you do not have a gp, you can go to after hours clnics that are open in the weekday evenings and on weekend. All you do is show your health card (every candaian citizen has one from their repsective province) and you WILL be seen by the doctor(s) who are working there. I went to one of these with a friend last weekened and she was seen in 15 minutes.
c) go to the ER. Someitmes the wait can be long - up to a few hours. If it is urgent (chest pains, stroke) they will see you immediately. I went to the ER once though, and only had to wait about 20 minutes so it is obvously variable.

Sidenote: the whole idea that because it is a public system we have to wait longer in the ER is not valid. Since there are so many people who are uninsured in the USA and thus do not go see the doctor on a regular basis or have access to preventative medicine, does that not create PACKED ERs in the US? Not only will people simply have more emergency health problems because they never see a doctor, some people will go to the ER to get treated for things that could be treated by normal doctor visits. Because these folks don't have coverage, they MUST go to the ER to be treated.