Nearly 15,500 patients in Canada died over the span of one year while waiting for surgery or diagnostic scans, according to a new report based on partial government data.
The policy brief titled “Died on a Waiting List,” by the think tank SecondStreet.org, says 15,474 patients died waiting for health services in Canada between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024. The organization collected data from provincial health-care bodies across the country through freedom-of-information requests.
The report said only 12 health bodies in seven provinces provided full or partial data, representing 62 percent of the country’s population. The organization estimated that the actual number of deaths could be closer to 28,077. Information obtained for the policy brief generally fell into two groups: cases where patients may have died waiting for life-saving procedures such as cancer treatment, and cases involving patients dying while waiting for surgery or diagnostic scans that could improve quality of life, such as a hip replacement….