As many as 150K Canadians died while waiting for medical treatment since 2018; Alberta data unclear without gov’t tracking: Report

New data says nearly 75,000 Canadians have died since 2018 while sitting on a waitlist for a diagnostic scan or surgery.

But, what’s even more shocking is the likelihood that number could be as high as 150,000.

The data was collected by filing Freedom of Information Requests across Canada. Health watchdog group SecondStreet.org says the 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.”

Colin Craig, the organization’s president, says most governments don’t fully track waitlist deaths, and some don’t do it at all, which makes it impossible to know the extent of the problem.

“When governments make mistakes with their hospitals, governments don’t disclose that publicly, and that’s a problem right across the country,” he explained. “In many cases, governments don’t even track the problem.

“So we need, I think, a big mindset change in this country when it comes to governments and how they’re running healthcare.”

Craig says the stats are only available from provinces that do follow, or partially follow, what’s happening.

Alberta is one of the provinces that no longer tracks the deaths whatsoever.

A statement from Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange’s office says that is due to how complex it is.

“A key challenge in collecting this data is the complexity of determining if a death was directly caused by the wait for a procedure, or if other factors were involved,” LaGrange’s office said. “For instance, while a person may pass away waiting for a non-urgent surgery like cataract removal, it’s unlikely that the wait time directly caused the death. Due to this complexity, data collection around these deaths has not been systematically tracked.

While some data was collected in the past, the province says there hasn’t been consistent analysis.

Craig claims the numbers show Canada’s health system is in crisis.

“Behind all these numbers are patients that are suffering — moms and dads that are dying, leaving behind their children, grandparents leaving behind their grandkids, people who are suffering in chronic pain,” he said. “It’s deplorable what’s going on in this country and how patients are treated.”

Craig adds that governments need to make changes and can learn from better performing universal health systems in Europe.