Laser Eye Surgery

An estimated 162,000 non-emergency surgery patients said last year that they experienced difficulty getting operations.

The top two complaints were that they had to wait too long and it was difficult getting an appointment with a surgeon.

The number of cardiac bypass surgeries and angioplasties, a medical procedure that helps restore blood flow through narrowed or blocked arteries in the heart, experienced a combined increase of 51 per cent over five years - from 1997-98 to 2002-03, amounting to almost 22,000 more surgeries over this period.

In all, there were 40,000 angioplasties and 24,000 cardiac bypass surgeries performed in 2002-2003.

Knee and hip replacements increased by 30 per cent, amounting to 11,340 more surgeries over this period.

About 22,000 hip replacements and 27,000 knee replacements were performed in 2002-2003, the latest figures available.

There was a 32 per cent increase in cataract surgeries over five years, between 1997-1998 and 2002-2003, which amounted to more than 62,000 additional operations.

In total, there were 255,000 cataract surgeries performed in 2002-2003.

Comparisons of waiting times province-by-province proved difficult for researchers.

This is something not lost on Brian Day, the founder of a private surgery clinic in Vancouver and the future president of the Canadian Medical A...