Canadians are waiting longer than ever for medical treatment, but British Columbia is not the worst in the country when it comes to health-care wait times.
Fraser Institute released a new study on Thursday after an annual survey of physicians found that the median wait time in Canada for medical treatment is 27.4 weeks — the longest ever recorded.
Back in 2021, the median wait time was 25.6 weeks. In 1993, it was 9.3 weeks.
“The results of this year’s survey indicate that COVID-19 and related hospital closures have exacerbated, but are not the cause, of Canada’s historic wait times challenges,” says Bacchus Barua, director of the Fraser Institute’s Centre for Health Policy Studies.
Twelve medical specialties — from referral by a general practitioner to when the patient ultimately receives treatment — were examined.
Ontario had the shortest wait time at 20.3 weeks, up 18.5 weeks from 2021. British Columbia ranked second in shortest wait time at 25.8 weeks, an improvement from 2021 when wait times were 26.2 weeks.
According to the study, the longest recorded wait time in Canada is 64.7 weeks on Prince Edward Island. The second longest recorded wait time was in Nova Scotia at 58.2 weeks.
Physicians in the study reported that their patients are waiting over six weeks longer for treatment, after seeing a specialist, than what they consider to be ‘clinically reasonable.’
Mackenzie Moir, Fraser Institute policy analyst and co-author of the report, says excessively long wait times remain a defining characteristic of Canada’s health-care system.
“And they aren’t simply minor inconveniences; they can result in increased suffering for patients, lost productivity at work, a decreased quality of life, and in the worst cases, disability or death,” says Moir.
The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization.
