In Canada most people have to wait a year or even longer to have hip or knee surgery. The waiting time for this procedure seems to have reached epidemic proportions.
This reminds me of the polio pandemic of the 1940-50’s. The voluntary organization which was raising funds for this pandemic had 2 choices. A quote from the book Maximum Life Span by Dr. Roy Walford illustrates the path they chose:
“… It could have invested their resources into perfecting better iron lungs… Instead of iron lungs, the Foundation invested heavily in basic research on the conquest of polio. It was certainly the wiser decision.”
Maybe our governments should follow a similar approach to address surgery wait times? They may also wish to consider the same strategy for cataract surgery, which now has a waiting list of a year or longer.