Canadian patients in 2024 waited longer than ever for medical treatment, finds a new Fraser Institute study.

“While most Canadians understand that wait times are a major problem, we’ve now reached an unprecedented and unfortunate milestone for delayed access to care,” said Bacchus Barua, director of health policy studies at the Fraser Institute and co-author of Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2024.

“Are you familiar with … the report that was issued?” Conservative MP Todd Doherty asked Health Minister Mark Holland. “I’m aware of it but haven’t had a chance to look it over,” he told the Standing Committee on Health.

The annual study, based on a survey of physicians across Canada, reports a median wait time of 30 weeks from referral by a family doctor to treatment. As many as 5.1 million Canadians are waiting for surgeries, diagnostic testing, and specialist consultations, Second Street figures revealed.

Canada's erratic Health Minister oversees a failing system. Canada ranks last or near last of 30 health systems in the developed world. 7 million Canadians don't have a doctor.

Mark Holland thinks we have the best health system in the world. It's ok, I guess until you need to… pic.twitter.com/cIABngWFHq

— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) December 17, 2024

The 2024 median wait (30 weeks) is the longest ever recorded, and 222% longer than the 9.3 weeks in 1993, when the Fraser Institute began tracking wait times. Across 12 medical specialties, wait times averaged 27.7 weeks last year and 20.9 weeks in 2019, the year preceding the COVID pandemic.

“That’s your record,” MP Doherty said, pointing to Minister Holland, who deflected blame at Conservative premiers. “Healthcare is administered provincially,” he replied. “We signed agreements with every province and every territory, worth $200 billion, that included metrics in every single category,” Holland continued.

“It’s interesting,” MP Doherty said. “Out of 30 developed countries, Canada is ranked 28th in availability of doctors, 25th in hospital beds, 25th for psychiatric beds, 27th for MRI machines, and 28 for CT scanners.”

Slash the Bureaucracy!

It's time to slash bureaucracy and reclaim accountability in Canada!

Canadians have long suffered under a system where inefficiency and corporate interests dictate public policy, especially in the realm of healthcare. For too long, the government has… pic.twitter.com/PFhaw6cDvv

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) November 18, 2024

Among the various specialties, national median wait times were longest for orthopedic surgery (57.5 weeks) and neurosurgery (46.2 weeks), and shortest for radiation (4.5 weeks) and medical oncology treatments (4.7 weeks), said the Fraser Institute report.

For diagnostic technologies, wait times were longest for CT scans (8.1 weeks), MRIs (16.2 weeks) and ultrasounds (5.2 weeks).

“Long wait times can result in increased suffering for patients, lost productivity at work, a decreased quality of life, and in the worst cases, disability or death,” said Mackenzie Moir, senior policy analyst at the Fraser Institute and study co-author.

“I’m not happy or satisfied with where we are in healthcare,” Holland told the Commons health committee, adding Canada has “one of the best healthcare systems in the world.”

.@SheilaGunnReid and @DreaHumphrey weigh in on the failures of Canada's universal health care and the tragic case of a man who died after not receiving a CT scan for heart issues after waiting hours at a hospital. pic.twitter.com/I0EFBiUU9I

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) December 13, 2024

Meanwhile, Second Street president Colin Craig told Rebel News that a waitlist analysis should become a national priority. “Our findings are just another example of why we need health reform.” 

“It’s amazing how many governments simply don’t know how many patients are waiting for surgery, to see a specialist or receive a diagnostic scan,” he said.

First and foremost, provinces should better track and disclose data on patients that die each year due to long waiting lists in the healthcare system. “This would remove ambiguity around waiting list deaths while improving accountability,” reads a 2023 Second Street policy brief, Died on a Waiting List.

Among other solutions include expanding healthcare choices and partnering with private care alternatives over bureaucracies.

John Rustad criticizes the decline of healthcare under NDP leader David Eby:

"People have died in emergency rooms. There was a lady, she was in labor. She went into a hospital, and she miscarried in the washroom and sat there, covered in blood, waiting for hours for services." pic.twitter.com/IBcbQwwnHm

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) October 9, 2024

British Columbia’s highest court refused to hear an April 6, 2023 appeal on private healthcare access. A 2022 survey showed nearly 75% of Canadians want private insurance in place of lengthening wait lists.

Some health policy experts oppose private alternatives in Canada over concerns a two-tier system encouraged “queue-jumping” and favoured wealthy patients. 

Dr. Brian Day, a Vancouver-based physician, claimed middle- and lower-income Canadians “suffer and die on wait lists” because of Canada’s healthcare monopoly.

At least 59,203 patients have died on healthcare waitlists since fiscal year 2018/19, according to SecondStreet.org, a free-market think-tank.

Day said prolonged wait times violate Charter rights, including the person’s right to life, liberty and security. The B.C. Court of Appeal and B.C. Supreme Court rejected his 2009 application in September of 2023.

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