B.C. is the worst province in Canada to access a specialist doctor
Sixty per cent of people in B.C. have difficulties accessing an appointment with a specialist doctor — the highest rate in Canada.
Three per cent of B.C. residents said it was impossible to do so, 30 per cent said it was very difficult, and 27 per cent said it was difficult, according to a poll from the Angus Reid Institute that analyzed the changes in a decade of public opinion data on health care.
Across the country, 55 per cent of people had difficulties accessing a specialist appointment, with four per cent saying it was impossible.
Angus Reid Institute
Canada already ranks poorly among other wealthy countries, with only 31 per cent of Canadians who needed to see a specialist able to do so in one month, according to a comparison from 2023.
Meanwhile, 54 per cent of patients in Switzerland, 62 per cent in the Netherlands, and 57 per cent in the U.S. all saw a specialist within a month.
B.C. residents also had the most difficulties out of any Canadian province accessing diagnostic tests, with 20 per cent (compared to a 13 per cent national average) reporting that it was “impossible” to access them, 26 per cent saying very difficult, and 44 per cent saying difficult.
“In B.C., where staffing pressures have exacerbated long wait times, one-in-five say it was very difficult to access their test within the past six months, well ahead of any other province,” writes the Angus Reid Institute.
Angus Reid Institute
Surprisingly, B.C. actually is the best in the country for family doctors per capita.
Still, 17 per cent of respondents reported that they don’t have a family doctor, and 37 per cent said that if they do have one, it was difficult to access them.
And while it might look like good news that all provinces (other than Alberta and Ontario) have more doctors per patient than they did 10 years ago, Canadians are still struggling to find family doctors.
According to the Canadian Medical Association, this is because more family doctors are “focusing on niche services,” and the overall population is aging and thus has higher medical needs.
The rest of Canada
While B.C. fares poorly on specialist and diagnostic testing access, the rest of Canada isn’t faring so great, either. Seven out of 10 said that the health-care system “quality of the health-care system in their province has deteriorated in the past decade.”
“Once a source of pride for Canadians, Canada’s health-care system has been on a 10-year slide with more Canadians than ever before having to overcome hurdles to see their family doctor, never mind specialists, diagnostics, surgeons or even emergency physicians,” reads a release from Angus Reid.