Nova Scotia among the highest in wait times for medical procedures in Canada

For nearly three decades the Fraser Institute has been keeping records of wait times for medical procedures in Canada.

This year’s report shows wait times have reached record highs across the country with the median wait time in Canada nearly tripling since 1993 when the median wait was just 9.3 weeks.

The report looks at total wait times across 12 medical specialties from a referral by a general practitioner to a consultation to treatment. In 2022, the average median wait time in Canada from referral to treatment is 27.4 weeks, but in Nova Scotia the wait is 58.2 weeks, second only to Prince Edward Island.

The bulk of the wait in Nova Scotia is to actually get to see a specialist. On average, it takes Nova Scotians 37.3 weeks for their first appointment with a specialist after getting a referral from a family doctor. It then takes an additional 21 weeks for treatment.

The length of the wait is dependent on the type of procedure.

The shortest wait times are in the oncology department.

For those seeking radiation oncology the wait to see a specialist is three weeks, with another three-week wait for treatment. For medical oncology the median wait to see a specialist is 1.8 weeks and then another 0.9 weeks for treatment.

The longest waits in the province are for orthopedic surgery, elective cardiovascular surgery and gynecology.

For orthopedic surgery the median wait to see a specialist is 27 weeks, then it’s an additional 72 weeks for treatment. Reasonable wait times for treatment are considered to be 16.5 weeks.

For elective cardiovascular surgery the median wait time to first see a specialist is 52 weeks, with an additional 62.7 weeks for treatment. What’s considered to be a reasonable wait time for treatment is 37.1 weeks.

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For gynecology the median wait time to first see a specialist is one year, with the wait for treatment more than another year away at 58.6 weeks. A reasonable wait time is considered to be 12.7 weeks.

“The key lesson is that whatever we’re doing right now is not working,” said Baccus Barua, director of health care policy with the Fraser Institute.

“For many many years governments have recognized that there are problems with health care, and they’ve tried to tackle them by simply pumping more money in the system, but that hasn’t lead to the results we’d like to see.”

Nova Scotia’s Minister of Health, Michelle Thompson said she wasn’t aware of the Fraser Institute’s study but said wait times are something the government is looking at “in a variety of different ways.”

“We’re working very hard to look at our surgical wait times, there has been some federal funding to support that,” said Thompson.

READ MORE: Nova Scotia family doctor wait list hits record high at more than 116,000 people

The minister also pointed out that they’ve committed to completing an additional 2,500 surgeries this year and called the wait time lists “stable.”

“We’re back to a pre-COVID level of surgery completion for the province.”

But NDP Leader Claudia Chender calls the province’s wait times “unacceptable.”

“To hear we’re back to pre-COVID levels – pre-COVID levels also not acceptable,” she said.

“We elected a government that promised to fix health care, this is one of the key things that is wrong and needs fixing in health care and it’s not getting better and so I would like to hear a little more urgency on the topic.”

READ MORE: N.S. Tories facing heavy criticism for their health-care handling in Year 1

While Nova Scotia has among the highest wait times in the country, Barua says record levels of wait times are an issue Canada-wide and points out that the issue is not just a pandemic problem.

“In 2019 the (national) wait times were already above 20 weeks, so this is telling us that wait times are really a structural issue.”

He says provincial and federal governments should be looking at other countries with universal health care to see who’s doing a better job while spending around the same amount.

“Countries like Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, Australia, France, Sweden – all of them spend about the same amount as we do,” he said.

“But all of them tend to have more resources, more physicians, more beds and shorter wait times.”

He says there are three things these countries do differently:

1. Better utilization of the private sector
2. Funding hospitals on the basis of activity
3. Patients share in cost of treatment with limits, based on income

“It’s not as if any one of these three things will magically fix the health-care system, but that’s where we need to look for ideas,” said Barua.

“If we keep doing the same thing we’re doing, we’re going to end up with the same problems.”