The Fraser Institute’s latest report on healthcare wait times reveals that Canadian patients continue to face prolonged waits between initial medical referrals and treatment across multiple specialties in Canada.
The median wait time for treatment in Canada this year was 28.6 weeks from general practitioner referral to treatment.
Although slightly shorter than the 30.0-week figure reported in 2024, the current figure exceeds the 20.9-week median recorded in 2019 and is 208 per cent longer than the 9.3-week figure reported in 1993.
Co-author Nadeem Esmail, the institute’s director of health policy studies, said prolonged delays have become a defining feature of the system.
Wait times vary widely by province. Ontario recorded the shortest median wait at 19.2 weeks, followed by British Columbia at 32.2 weeks and Quebec at 32.5 weeks.
Credit: Fraser Institute
The longest delays were reported in New Brunswick (60.9 weeks), Prince Edward Island (49.7 weeks) and Nova Scotia (49.0 weeks). Compared with 2024, wait times decreased in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick, and P.E.I., while rising elsewhere.
Wait times:
The report splits the wait times into two parts: referral by a general practitioner to consultation with a specialist, and from the consultation with a specialist to the point at which the patient receives treatment.
Credit: Fraser Institute
The wait to see a specialist increased to 15.3 weeks in 2025, up from 15.0 weeks in 2024 and 313% longer than in 1993. This stage was longest in New Brunswick (34.4 weeks) and shortest in Ontario and Quebec (both 10.7 weeks).
Credit: Fraser Institute
The second stage, specialist consultation to treatment, fell to 13.3 weeks from 15.0 weeks but remains 138% longer than in 1993. All provinces saw decreases except Quebec and Nova Scotia. The shortest waits were in Ontario (8.5 weeks) and the longest in New Brunswick (26.5 weeks).
Surgery/Specialty Wait Times:
Wait times vary substantially across medical specialties. The shortest overall waits occur in radiation oncology (4.2 weeks), medical oncology (4.7 weeks) and elective cardiovascular surgery (19.6 weeks).
Credit: Fraser Institute
The longest waits are for neurosurgery (49.9 weeks), orthopaedic surgery (48.6 weeks) and otolaryngology (43.8 weeks).
Increases since 2024 were largest in cardiovascular surgery (+6.8 weeks), otolaryngology (+6.2) and neurosurgery (+3.6), while notable decreases occurred in orthopaedic surgery (–8.9), ophthalmology (–2.8) and urology (–1.7).
Referral-to-consultation waits are shortest in radiation oncology (1.8 weeks) and longest in neurosurgery (39.7). Consultation-to-treatment waits range from urgent cardiovascular surgery (1.9 weeks) to orthopaedic surgery (27.2).
Actual treatment waits exceed specialists’ “reasonable” expectations in 74% of comparisons, with the largest gap—13.6 weeks—in orthopaedic surgery.
Diagnostic wait times:
Patients continue to face long waits for diagnostic tests.
CT scan waits rose to 8.8 weeks, ranging from 6.0 weeks in Ontario to 15.0 weeks in Alberta.
MRI waits increased to 18.1 weeks, with the shortest at 12.0 weeks in Ontario and Quebec and the longest at 52.0 weeks in Prince Edward Island.
Ultrasound wait times eached 5.4 weeks, from 2.0 weeks in Saskatchewan to 14.0 weeks in Newfoundland and Labrador
Credit: Fraser Institute
Fraser Institute collected data from physicians for the study between January 16 and May 30, 2025. The organization received 1,577 responses across 12 specialties. The response rate was 13.1%.
Fraser Institute has been studying wait times across Canada by surveying specialist physicians across 12 specialties and 10 provinces since 1993.
A detailed report is given here — Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2025 Report.