Toronto 
A new study, Comparing Performance of Universal Health Care Countries, 2021 by Fraser Institute says Canada ranks very low among 28 developed countries with Universal Health Care for a number of doctors, hospital beds, and MRIs.
This is despite spending more on health care than most other developed countries. We also have the longest wait times to access specialist care.
Fraser Institute
The authors of the study, Mackenzie Moir and Bacchus Barua compared the performance of different countries’ healthcare systems and found that Canada’s relative lack of critical resources and struggle with long wait times for treatment precedes the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fraser Institute says Canada ranks among the most expensive universal healthcare systems in the OECD. According to the study, Canada’s healthcare spending as a share of GDP (11.3 per cent) ranked second highest (after adjusting for population age) behind only Switzerland and ranked 6th highest for healthcare expenditure as a percentage of GDP and the 10th highest for healthcare expenditure per capita.
Out of 28 countries, Canada ranks 26th for the number of doctors (2.8 per 1,000 people), 25th (out of 26 countries) for the number of hospital beds (2.0 per 1,000 people), and 24th (out of 28 countries) for the number of psychiatric beds (0.37 per 1,000 people).
Canada ranks 21st (out of 24) for the number of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines with 10.5 MRIs per million people, and 22nd (out of 26) for CT scanners with 15.2 scanners per million people.
The study found among the 10 comparable universal healthcare countries that measure wait times, Canada is ranked 9th (out of 10) for the percentage of patients able to make a same-day appointment when sick, and ranks 8th (out of 10) for the percentage of patients who report that it is very or somewhat easy to find care after hours.
Fraser Institute
Canada also ranked worst (10th out of 10) for the percentage of patient-reported waiting four weeks or less for a specialist appointment and worst (10th out of 10) for the percentage of patients who reported waiting less than four months for elective surgery.
Read more on the report here – Comparing Performance of Universal Health Care Countries.
