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Why do Canadians wait so long for specialist doctors?
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Canada has some of the longest waits to see specialist doctors compared to other wealthy countries.
- In a 2023 comparison of 10 countries, less than a third (31%) of Canadians who needed a specialist saw one within a month. One in 10 waited a year or more.
- In contrast, most patients in Switzerland (64%), the Netherlands (62%), the United States (57%) and Germany (54%) who needed a specialist saw one within a month. Fewer than one in 50 patients in these countries waited a year or more.
️What’s behind the wait?
Wait times to see surgeons and other specialists can be unpredictable because each one keeps their own list of patients waiting for treatment. Plus, the doctor referring you might not know how busy one specialist is compared to others.
How long you wait for a specialist depends on a few things:
- How many patients doctors send their way. You might wait longer for specialists who get a lot of referrals.
- How many complex cases they handle. Treating complex patients can take longer, so the wait might be longer, too.
Let’s talk solutions
What experts are saying:
- Simplify the wait. Some experts think it’s better to have one big wait list for specialist doctors. This way, the health system can sort out who needs what treatment or surgery and connect them with the nearest available doctor, instead of having different lists for each one.
- Lean on the team. In Ontario, adding physiotherapists to rheumatologists’ teams to help prioritize patients successfully decreased wait times. Alberta’s Bone and Joint Health Institute has a similar “prehabilitation” program where physiotherapists assess and treat people before they see a surgeon.
Where’d we get this information?
- A 2023 Commonwealth Fund study of 10 high-income countries
- A Healthy Debate article on reducing specialist wait times
- A Health Quality Ontario Q&A on wait times
