TORONTO - A new report suggests men may move through the medical system faster than women when they need to see a specialist.
The Statistics Canada report says wait times to see a specialist vary depending on the severity of the illness, though nearly half of people see one within a month of getting a referral.
But where 51 per cent of men see a specialist within a month, only 42 per cent of women have their first specialist appointment within that time frame.
The report says it's not clear whether this is the result of gender bias or whether men wait longer to get help for a medical condition and therefore move through the system quicker because they are at greater need.
The source of the referral has an influence on how quickly people see a specialist, with those referred by someone other than a family doctor more than twice as likely to wait less than a month.
The findings are based on the Canadian Community Health Survey and draw from the experiences of people in all 10 provinces but not the three territories, federal institutions or First Nations reserves.
