Canada records median wait times of 28.6 weeks in 2025, says report
Long medical wait times cost Canadians more than $4.2 billion in lost wages and productivity last year, according to a new Fraser Institute report that underscores rising risks for employers managing absenteeism and workforce capacity.
The report, titled The Private Cost of Public Queues for Medically Necessary Care and released March 10, 2026, estimates that approximately 1.4 million patients were waiting for medically necessary treatment in 2025. On average, each patient lost $3,043 in wages and productivity during working hours while awaiting care.
For HR professionals, those numbers point to a widespread productivity drain that extends across sectors, job types and provinces.
People waiting for medically necessary treatment lost an estimated $5.2 billion in productivity in 2024, the Fraser Institute previously reported.
Conservative estimate
The think tank notes that the $4.2‑billion estimate is likely conservative. It only captures lost time during the work week between specialist appointment and treatment, and does not include the additional 15.3‑week median wait to see a specialist after a general practitioner referral, or the weeks many patients spend waiting for diagnostic tests such as MRI or CT scans.
For HR leaders, that suggests the true impact on scheduling, overtime and disability costs may be substantially higher than the headline figure.
“As long as lengthy wait times define Canada’s health-care system, patients will continue to pay a price in lost time and reduced quality of life,” says Mackenzie Moir, a senior policy analyst at the Fraser Institute.
Nearly two-thirds of Canadian women delay or skip healthcare due to long wait times, according to a previous report.
Wait times and workforce impact
The recent Fraser Institute report is based on the Fraser Institute’s annual Waiting Your Turn survey of Canadian physicians.
In 2025, doctors reported a national median wait time of 13.3 weeks from specialist appointment to treatment. The total median wait time—from referral by a general practitioner through specialist consultation to treatment—was 28.6 weeks, the second-longest in the survey’s history.
The 2025 data are still “208% longer than the 9.3 week wait Canadian patients could expect in 1993,” the Fraser Institute previously reported.
“Waiting long periods of time for medically necessary treatment remains a hallmark of the Canadian health-care system, and in addition to increased pain and suffering—and potentially worse medical outcomes—these long waits also cost Canadians valuable time during which they are unable to work effectively, enjoy time with family, or participate fully in their own lives,” said Nadeem Esmail, director of health policy studies at the Fraser Institute.
The Fraser Institute calculates the “average value of time lost during the work week” for patients waiting for medically necessary treatment by province, reflecting differences in both wait times and incomes.
Regionally, residents of New Brunswick faced the highest per‑patient cost at $4,864, followed by Quebec at $3,912 and Alberta at $3,724.
