Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, Vol 27, 399-405, Copyright © 1980 by Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society

Anaesthesia for Day-Care Surgery: A Symposium (I)

Day-Care Surgery in Canada: Evolution, Policy and Experience of Provinces

¹ Department of Preventive Medicine & Biostatistics, and Department of Health Administration; Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto; The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto

Day-care surgery is a good alternative to conventional inpatient surgery. In Canada, all the provinces have day-care surgery programmes and British Columbia has a highly developed province-wide programme accounting for about 27 per cent of all operations; approximately 44 per cent of all operations in British Columbia could be done in day-care. Extrapolation of these figures nationally for the year 1975 indicates that Canadians could have saved approximately $209 million in hospital care by day-care surgery for all operations of the 25 procedures most commonly done in day-care. Further, if five other procedures which are suitable for day-care surgery had been so managed, there would have been a further potential of saving $62 million in Canada. Apart from economic justification, day-care surgery provides high quality care and is acceptable to patients and providers.

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Presented as a Panel at the Annual Meeting, Canadian Anaesthetists' Society, June 1979.