Fraser Institute News Release: Canada’s health-care wait times hit 27.4 weeks in 2022–longest ever recorded
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Canadian sufferers waited longer than ever this 12 months for medical therapy, finds a brand new research launched as we speak by the Fraser Institute, an impartial, non-partisan Canadian public coverage think-tank.
The research, an annual survey of physicians throughout Canada, studies a median wait time of 27.4 weeks—the longest ever recorded, longer than the wait of 25.6 weeks reported in 2021—and 195 per cent increased than the 9.3 weeks Canadians waited in 1993, when the Fraser Institute started monitoring wait occasions.
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“The outcomes of this 12 months’s survey point out that COVID-19 and associated hospital closures have exacerbated, however will not be the trigger, of Canada’s historic wait occasions challenges,” mentioned Bacchus Barua, director of the Fraser Institute’s Centre for Well being Coverage Research and co-author of Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2022.
“Earlier outcomes revealed that sufferers waited an estimated 20.9 weeks for medically obligatory elective care in 2019—lengthy earlier than the pandemic began.”
The research examines the whole wait time confronted by sufferers throughout 12 medical specialties from referral by a basic practitioner (i.e. household physician) to session with a specialist, to when the affected person finally receives therapy.
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Among the many provinces, Ontario recorded the shortest wait time at 20.3 weeks—nonetheless up from 18.5 weeks in 2021. Prince Edward Island recorded the longest wait time in Canada at 64.7 weeks.
Among the many varied specialties, nationwide wait occasions had been longest between a referral by a GP and neurosurgical procedures (58.9 weeks) and shortest for radiation therapies (3.9 weeks).
Sufferers additionally expertise important ready occasions for varied diagnostic applied sciences. This 12 months, Canadians might count on to attend 5.4 weeks for a computed tomography (CT) scan, 10.6 weeks for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, and 4.9 weeks for an ultrasound.
Crucially, physicians report that their sufferers are ready over six weeks longer for therapy (after seeing a specialist) than what they take into account to be clinically affordable.
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“Excessively lengthy wait occasions stay a defining attribute of Canada’s health-care system,” mentioned Mackenzie Moir, Fraser Institute coverage analyst and co-author of the report.
“And so they aren’t merely minor inconveniences, they can lead to elevated struggling for sufferers, misplaced productiveness at work, a decreased high quality of life, and within the worst instances, incapacity or dying.”
The aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic proceed to impression the survey’s response charge, however tons of of physicians throughout the nation nonetheless participated this 12 months, with greater than 850 responses obtained throughout the 12 specialities (975 when psychiatrists are included).
Median wait occasions by province (in weeks)
| PROVINCE | 2021 | 2022 | PROVINCE | 2021 | 2022 |
| British Columbia | 26.2 | 25.8 | Quebec | 29.1 | 29.4 |
| Alberta | 32.1 | 33.3 | New Brunswick | 41.5 | 43.3 |
| Saskatchewan | 30.9 | 30.1 | Nova Scotia | 53.2 | 58.2 |
| Manitoba | 31.5 | 41.3 | P.E.I. | 41.6 | 64.7 |
| Ontario | 18.5 | 20.3 | Newfoundland and Labrador | 21.1 | 32.1 |
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Mackenzie Moir, Coverage Analyst
Fraser Institute
Bacchus Barua, Director, Centre for Well being Coverage Research
Fraser Institute
For interviews or for extra info, please contact:
Drue MacPherson, Junior Media Relations Coordinator Fraser Institute
Tel: (604) 688-0221 Ext. 721
E-mail: drue.macpherson@fraserinstitute.org
Observe the Fraser Institute on Twitter and Facebook
The Fraser Institute is an impartial Canadian public coverage analysis and academic group with places of work in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a worldwide community of think-tanks in 87 international locations. Its mission is to enhance the standard of life for Canadians, their households and future generations by finding out, measuring and broadly speaking the consequences of presidency insurance policies, entrepreneurship and selection on their well-being. To guard the Institute’s independence, it doesn’t settle for grants from governments or contracts for analysis. Go to www.fraserinstitute.org
