2.9 Million Canadians on Wait List for Surgery, Scans, and Specialists: Think Tank

A nurse works in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at Surrey Memorial Hospital in Surrey, B.C., on June 4, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward)

At least 2.9 million Canadians are waiting for surgery, diagnostic scans, or specialist appointments, according to Freedom of Information requests obtained by SecondStreet.org, a think tank based in Regina.

Not all provinces had data available, leading the group to suggest that the true total could be close to 4 million people on waiting lists.

Second Street  said its research identified nearly 12,000 patients across Canada who died in 2020–2021 while waiting for surgeries, diagnostic scans and appointments with specialists. The patient deaths identified ranged from people waiting for potentially life-saving treatment such as heart operations, to procedures like hip operations that improve quality of life.

“Millions of Canadians don’t have a family doctor, thousands of Canadians die each year while sitting on waiting lists, and stories about patients being treated in hallways are all too common,” Second Street president Colin Craig said in a policy brief.

“Canada’s health care system was actually in a crisis before the pandemic; the pandemic made the problem worse.”

Waiting lists are at historic highs, according to the 2021 report “Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada” by the Fraser Institute, which has been tracking wait times in Canada since 1993.

The report showed that the median wait time in 2021 was the longest recorded in the survey’s history. The figures were derived from surveying specialist physicians regarding wait times, with a median waiting time of 25.6 weeks between referral from a general practitioner and receipt of treatment. In 1993, the wait time was just 9.3 weeks, the report said.

Patients who needed neurosurgical procedures waited the longest time for health care, at 49.2 weeks, while cancer patients requiring radiation typically waited 3.7 weeks, said the 2021 report.

Majority Support Using Private Clinics to Reduce Backlogs

A Leger poll commissioned by Second Street on possible health-care reform options suggests Canadians are unhappy with the current state of health care and want changes.

Seventy-two percent of respondents were in agreement with Canada implementing a policy from the European Union known as the Cross Border Directive. It would allow patients to obtain public or private health care outside their own province, pay for surgery, and be reimbursed by their own provincial government at the same level local care would have cost.

Fourteen percent of those polled opposed the idea of inter-provincial health care funding and another 14 percent weren’t sure how they felt about it. Support for the idea was highest in Manitoba and Saskatchewan at 85 percent, and lowest in Ontario but still a majority of those polled at 69 percent.

According to Second Street, a B.C. resident can pay for private knee surgery in Alberta, and an Alberta resident can go to B.C. for private surgery, but neither of them can purchase private surgery in their own province.

Sixty-four percent of Canadians polled supported governments hiring private clinics to provide surgeries for patients to reduce backlogs in the public system, with only 20 percent saying they opposed this idea.

Roughly half of respondents said Canadians should be able to spend their own money to pay for private surgery.

Regarding more government accountability, 66 percent believe health ministers should be required to hold a press conference each year to make public the number of patients who died as a result of long waiting lists.

Second Street noted that the findings are similar to a 2020 Nanos poll it commissioned in which 81 percent of Canadians answered yes as to whether governments should track and disclose this information. A Leger poll in 2021 obtained a similar majority at 79 percent.

“This research endeavour reinforced what SecondStreet.org has observed in past public opinion research – Canadians support improving accountability in the health care system, increasing the choices available and like the idea of governments partnering with private providers to reduce waiting lists,” Craig said.

The poll asked 1,534 Canadians their thoughts on health care reform between Oct. 2 and 7. The respondents were selected from Leger’s research panel, a representative sample of the broader Canadian population.