Number of Patients Who Died While Waiting for Medical Care Hits 5-Year High

A treatment room in the emergency department at a hospital in Calgary on Aug. 22, 2023. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

The number of patients who have died in Canada while on a waiting list for medical care is at a five-year high, according to a new report.

At least 17,032 patients died while awaiting surgery or diagnostic scans in the study period from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023, says the SecondStreet.org report.

“The data consists of cases where patients died waiting for procedures that could have potentially saved their lives (e.g. a heart operation) and procedures that could have improved their quality of life (e.g. hip operation),” the Regina-based public policy think tank said in a Dec. 6 news release.

The report is based on data obtained through freedom-of-information requests filed with government health-care bodies nationwide, including provincial health departments, health regions, and hospitals.

Data from those that provided figures for each of the past five years shows a 64 percent increase in annual surgical waiting list deaths since 2018, the report said.

In total, over 58,600 patients died while waiting for care since April 2018.

The report said the data it contains is underreported, as some health-care bodies did not track that data in the past or only tracked partial information. However, it said SecondStreet.org was able to obtain “at least partial data from 12 health bodies, altogether covering more than 73% of the population’s health care.”

“Patients died after waiting anywhere from less than a week to nearly 11 years,” the report said.

SecondStreet.org president and report author Colin Craig described the situation as “deplorable.”

“More money won’t solve the problem. Governments have tried that for 30 years. Only meaningful health reform will reduce patient suffering,” he said in the news release.

According to the report, per capita government health-care spending has risen from $1,714 to $5,607 since 1992, nearly double the inflation rate.

Mr. Craig said more needs to be done, “At the very least, governments need to do a better job of tracking this problem and assessing just how many patients died because they had to wait too long for surgery.”

Provincial Statistics

In Ontario alone, 101 patients died while waiting for heart surgery during the study period, with 36 of those dying after waiting longer than the recommended wait time.

“Since 2013, there have been 931 cases where Ontario patients died while waiting for heart surgery,” the release said, adding that 26 percent waited longer than recommended.

“Ontario, Alberta, and other provinces are hiring private clinics to help provide surgery to patients in the public system. This is a good first step,” said Mr. Craig. “Sweden and other European countries have shown this can help.”

Broken down provincially, among the 12 health bodies that provided data to SecondStreet.org, Ontario Health saw the largest number of patient deaths while waiting for treatment, at 11,500, followed by B.C.’s Fraser Health region, at 1,517, and B.C.’s Interior Health region, at 1,491.

Manitoba’s Prairie Mountain Health had the lowest number of patients who died while awaiting care, at 43. New Brunswick Health had the second-lowest number, at 77, and B.C. Northern Health was third, at 135.

Recommendations

The report suggested that governments consider partnering with the private sector to improve patient outcomes, where the cost would be covered by government, something Saskatchewan has been doing for over a decade.

“The Saskatchewan government credits their decision to hire private clinics with helping to reduce wait times and their surgical backlog beginning in 2010,” said the report.

Another policy option is to offer more health-care choices.

“Instead of forcing these patients to decide either to wait for the provincial government to provide a particular health procedure or to leave their province (or country) for care somewhere else, the government could keep the public health care system, but allow non-government clinics in Canada to provide the same procedures.”

Following the EU system is another option, where patients can travel to other EU countries for care, pay for the procedure, and then be reimbursed by their home government.

“Reimbursements cover up to the amount their government would have spent to provide the surgery locally,” the report said.

October 2023 public opinion research commissioned by SecondStreet.org found that 74 percent of Canadians support the EU policy.

Another option is reforming the way hospitals are funded to an activity-based model, where they are paid based on services provided to patients instead of annual cheques that cover nearly everything.

This means “patients are no longer thought of as people ’to have to help' but rather as customers that should be welcomed as they represent additional funding,“ said the report. ”This approach incentivizes output as every patient that receives a surgery or other procedure, results in more funding for the hospital.”