Close to 15,500 died waiting for health care in Canada in 2023-24

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Close to 15,500 people died waiting for health care in Canada between April 1, 2023 until March 31, 2024, according to data compiled by SecondStreet.org via Freedom to Information Act requests across the country.

However, SecondStreet.org says the exact number of 15,474 is incomplete as Quebec, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador don’t track the problem and Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia only provided data on patients who died while waiting for surgeries – not diagnostic scans.

SecondStreet.org says if it extrapolates the unknown data, then an estimated 28,077 patients died last year on health care waiting lists covering everything from cancer treatment and heart operations to cataract surgery and MRI scans.

“Canadians pay really high taxes and yet our health care system is failing when compared to better-performing universal systems in Europe,” said Harrison Fleming, the legislative and policy director at SecondStreet.org.

“Thousands of Canadians across the country find themselves on waitlists – in some cases for several years – with too many tragically dying before ever getting treated, or even diagnosed.”

SecondStreet.org research also observed cases where patients died after waiting anywhere from less than a week for treatment to more than 14 years.

New data from Ontario Health suggests 378 patients died while waiting for cardiac surgery or a cardiac procedure.

“When a restaurant fails a health inspection, the government shares the news publicly and sometimes notices are posted in the establishment’s windows for everyone to see,” SecondStreet.org President Colin Craig said in a statement.

“But, when nearly 75,000 Canadians have died before getting the care they needed, governments don’t proactively disclose anything. Maybe it’s time for governments to hold themselves to the same standard they hold everyone else.”

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Since April 2018, SecondStreet.org has identified 74,677 cases where Canadians died while waiting for care.

“This research was inspired by stories like Laura Hillier’s, the 18-year-old Ontario patient who died on a waiting list for cancer treatment,” added Craig in a statement.

“Governments need to do a better job tracking tragic stories like hers, notifying the public about waiting lists deaths and most importantly, initiating reform to save lives.”