More Than 23,000 Patients in Canada Died Last Year While on Health-Care Wait Lists

An empty hospital bed in a file photograph. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

More than 23,000 Canadians have died while waiting for health care over the past year, recent government data suggests.

Think tank SecondStreet.org’s annual “Died on a Waiting List” report, released on Nov. 26, analyzes data sourced from provincial health authorities to determine how many people died while on a waiting list for surgery or diagnostic treatment.