Wait times for physical and occupational therapy in the public system for people with arthritis in quebec

Although arthritis is the leading cause of pain and disability in Canada, and physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) are beneficial both for chronic osteoarthritis (OA) and for inflammatory arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), there appear to be problems with access to such services. The aim of this study was to document wait times from referral by physician to consultation with PT or OT in the public health care system for people with arthritis in Quebec, Canada.

Appointments were requested by telephone, using hypothetical case scenarios; wait times were defined as the time between initial request and appointment date. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the wait times in relation to diagnosis, service provider and geographic area.

For both scenarios (OA and RA) combined, 13% were offered an appointment within 6 months, 13% offered given an appointment within 6-12 months, 24% were told they would need to wait longer than 12 months, and 22% were refused services. The remaining 28% were told they would require an evaluation appointment for functional assessment before being given an appointment for therapy. No difference was found between RA and OA diagnoses.

Our study suggests that most people with arthritis living in the province of Quebec are not receiving publicly accessible PT or OT intervention in a timely manner.