How We Report Systemic Wait Times

We are changing the way we report systemic treatment wait times.

Cancer Care Ontario is moving toward reporting more current, more comprehensive and more specific systemic treatment wait times information. Wait Times are updated monthly.

You now can view wait times according to two indicators:

1) wait times by target for "referral to consult" and
2) median wait times for “referral to treatment.”

Wait Times by Target (14 days) – Referral to Consult
We are taking the first step toward this new way of reporting systemic wait times by reporting the proportion of patients who are receiving services within the recommended timeframe or target (14 days) for the interval of "referral to consult."

Referral to consult: The time between a referral to a specialist to the time that specialist consults with the patient

Median Wait Times – Referral to Treatment
As we move toward this new way of reporting, we are continuing to report systemic treatment wait times from "referral to treatment" as a three month rolling median for each regional cancer centre at hospitals across the province.

Referral to treatment: The waiting period from the time a hospital’s regional cancer centre receives a referral for a patient to receive systemic treatment to the time the patient receives his or her first treatment.
Median wait time: The point at which one half of the patients have started treatment and the other half are still waiting.