75,000 Canadians Died Waiting for Health Care

If you think Canada has such a great nationalized health care system, you need to reconsider.

Today, SecondStreet.org released government data showing an additional 15,474 patients in Canada died in 2023-24 before receiving various surgeries or diagnostic scans. However, that number is incomplete, as several governments provide either partial data, or simply do not track the problem.

SecondStreet.org collected the data by filing Freedom of Information (FOI) requests across Canada. When the data collected is extrapolated across jurisdictions which did not provide data, the number actually nearly doubles, to around 28,077. These figures cover 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, 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.”

Key Findings

At least 15,474 patients died in Canada while waiting for surgeries or diagnostic scans. This figure does not include Quebec, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador and most of Manitoba. Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia only provided data on patients who died while waiting for surgeries — not diagnostic scans.

If one extrapolates the data provided across provinces and health regions that did not provide data, an estimated 28,077 patients died last year on health care waiting lists.

While some response data is vague, SecondStreet.org 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.

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

Another 15,000-Plus Euthanized

Source: Since 2018, Over 75,000 Canadians Died Waiting for Health Care