Health Care Wait-Times in Canada. What can I do about it?

Canadians are waiting longer than ever for medically necessary treatment, finds a new study released by the Fraser Institute in Dec 2021.

The median wait time for treatment in Canada for the year 2021 was 25.6 weeks, up from 20.9 weeks wait time in 2019.

Fraser Institute has been studying wait times across Canada by surveying specialists since 1993. This year’s wait time is the longest wait time recorded in this survey’s history and is 175% longer than in 1993, when it was just 9.3 weeks.

The report splits wait times into 2 parts – referral by a general practitioner to consultation with a specialist and from specialist to the point where a patient receives treatment.

In Ontario, patients waited an average of 8.2 weeks