Canadians faced longest ever health-care wait times in 2024, study finds

'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

Canadians waited longer than ever for medical treatment in 2024, says the Fraser Institute.

This year’s edition of its annual survey of physicians from across Canada reports a median wait time of 30 weeks from referral by a family doctor to consultation with a specialist, and then from the consultation to actual treatment.

The 30-week wait is the longest ever recorded by the Institute — longer than the 27.7 weeks in 2023, 20.9 weeks in pre-pandemic 2019, and 222 per cent longer than the 9.3 weeks in 1993, when it began tracking wait times.