Canada’s median health-care wait time hits 28.6 weeks—second longest ever recorded

VANCOUVER—Canadian patients in 2025 waited 28.6 weeks from GP referral to actual treatment, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

“Remarkably long wait times for medically necessary care have become the defining characteristic of the Canadian health care experience,” said Nadeem Esmail, director of health policy studies at the Fraser Institute and co-author of Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2025.

The annual study, based on a survey of physicians across Canada, this year reports a median wait time of 28.6 weeks from referral by a general practitioner (i.e. family doctor) to consultation with a specialist to actual treatment, for procedures across 12 medical specialties including several types of surgery.

This year’s median wait (28.6 weeks) is the second longest ever recorded—shorter than the 30.0 weeks recorded last year, but longer than the 20.9 weeks in 2019 (before the pandemic), and 208 per cent longer than the 9.3 weeks in 1993 when the Fraser Institute began publishing wait times.

Among the provinces, Ontario recorded the shortest median wait time (19.2 weeks) while New Brunswick recorded the longest (60.9 weeks), along with Prince Edward Island (49.7 weeks) and Nova Scotia (49.0 weeks).

Among the various specialties, national median wait times were longest for neurosurgery (49.9 weeks) and orthopaedic surgery (48.6 weeks), and shortest for radiation oncology (4.2 weeks) and medical oncology treatments (4.7 weeks).

Canadians also experienced long waits for diagnostic scans: 8.8 weeks for CT scans, 18.1 weeks for MRI scans, and 5.4 weeks for ultrasounds.

“Long wait times can result in increased suffering for patients, lost productivity at work, decreased quality of life, and in the worst cases, disability or death,” said Mackenzie Moir, senior policy analyst at the Fraser Institute and study co-author.

Median wait times by province (in weeks)

Media Contact:
Nadeem Esmail, Director, Health Policy Studies, Fraser Institute
Mackenzie Moir, Senior Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute

To arrange media interviews or for more information, please contact:
Drue MacPherson, Fraser Institute
604-688-0221 ext. 721
drue.macpherson@fraserinstitute.org

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