Shocking report reveals over 23,000 Canadians died waiting for medical care in past year
The health-care crisis in Canada has resulted in more patients dying while waiting for surgeries and diagnostic scans.
A new report highlights the deadly effects of the health-care crisis in Canada, with more people dying while on the waitlist. SecondStreet.org, a non-profit think tank that examines government policies, states that at least 23,746 patients died in Canada while waiting for surgeries or diagnostic scans from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025.
That number represents a three per cent increase in waiting list deaths, with patients forced to wait anywhere from under a week to almost nine years. And since April 2018, 100,876 Canadians died while waiting for care.
“The situation is unacceptable and unbecoming for a developed nation,” reads the report. “The lack of accountability concerning waitlist deaths is equally unacceptable.”
“A system in crisis”
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While that figure is alarming, it’s likely much higher as it doesn’t include data from Alberta and parts of Manitoba. It also doesn’t include the number of patients across Canada dying while waiting for specialist appointments. According to government data acquired through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, almost six million Canadians are on a waiting list in 2025.
And wait times are getting much longer.
In 1993, it would take an average of 9.3 weeks to see a specialist and receive treatment — in 2024, the wait time jumped to an average of 30 weeks. In comparison to countries with universal public health care like Sweden, France, and Japan, “the idea of patients dying on waiting lists was a foreign concept.”
Patient deaths while waiting for surgeries and diagnostic scans (2024 to 2025):
secondstreet.org
Canadians who died while on the waiting list were waiting for a wide array of life-saving procedures, such as heart surgery and cancer operations. However, the report notes that the majority of waitlist deaths were for procedures that could have improved the patient’s quality of life in their final years rather than life-saving treatment.
According to the report, it would be inappropriate to lay the blame for all of these waitlist deaths on the government. However, “patient suffering that is occurring in Canada is well-documented, and the data provided by governments shows a system in crisis.”
Urgent need for reform
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The report provides several recommendations, starting with more transparency when tracking and reporting waitlist deaths per year. It also suggests “activity-based funding,” where hospitals are funded based on the number of patients they treat.
The government could also partner with the private sector for publicly-funded procedures — a move that reduced costs and wait times in Saskatchewan and Ontario. Alternatively, the government could follow the EU’s example by reimbursing patients travelling to other countries for procedures, providing the same amount it would have cost locally.
The report warns, “Unless reform measures are implemented, Canadians should expect to see this problem continue for years to come.”