VANCOUVER—Canadian patients waited longer than ever this year for medical treatment, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
The study, an annual survey of physicians from across Canada, reports a median wait time of 22.6 weeks—the longest ever recorded—and 143 per cent higher than the 9.3 weeks Canadians waited in 1993, when national estimates of the wait for medically necessary elective treatments were first calculated.
Before this year, the longest recorded median wait time was 21.2 weeks in 2017.