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Federal Health Minister Tony Clement says he's not surprised that most hospitals are failing to reduce health-care wait times.

Clement says that's what happens when wait-times targets are set with no way of reaching those targets. The minister was reacting today to a report indicating that 70 per cent of hospitals across Canada are failing to meet a four-week target for providing radiation treatments to prostate cancer patients.

The federal Conservatives pledged during the last election campaign to develop a patient wait-times guarantee with the provinces to ensure Canadians receive essential medical treatment within clinically acceptable waiting times.

But at a news conference today in Ottawa, Clement acknowledged that creating wait-times targets without a way to back up the commitment was "an empty promise."