In 2025, the median wait from a family-doctor referral to treatment in Canada reached 28.6 weeks, the second longest on record (Fraser Institute). Orthopaedic surgery, the category that includes hip and knee replacement, averaged 48.6 weeks. Those numbers are the single biggest reason Canadians look abroad for planned procedures.
For most Canadians, the hardest part of needing surgery is not the operation. It is the wait before it. A diagnosis arrives, a referral is made, and then the calendar takes over: months to see a specialist, more months for a procedure date. This page sets out what those waits actually look like in 2026, using the two most-cited national sources, and explains why a growing number of Canadians are deciding the wait is not their only option.
The Headline Number: 28.6 Weeks
Every year the Fraser Institute surveys physicians across the country for its Waiting Your Turn report. In 2025 it found a median total wait of 28.6 weeks between a referral from a general practitioner and the receipt of treatment. That was down slightly from 30.0 weeks in 2024, but it remains the second-longest wait ever recorded and is more than three times the 9.3 weeks Canadians waited in 1993.
That single number is really two waits stacked on top of each other:
- 15.3 weeks from a GP referral to a consultation with a specialist.
- 13.3 weeks from that specialist consultation to the actual treatment.
In other words, by the time many patients first meet the surgeon who will treat them, they have already waited the better part of four months, and the clock has not yet started on the procedure itself.
Wait Times by Province
Where you live changes the math dramatically. The same procedure can mean a five-month wait in one province and well over a year in another.
| Province | Median total wait, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Ontario | 19.2 weeks (shortest) |
| British Columbia | 32.2 weeks |
| Quebec | 32.5 weeks |
| Nova Scotia | 49.0 weeks |
| Prince Edward Island | 49.7 weeks |
| New Brunswick | 60.9 weeks (longest) |
A patient in New Brunswick waits, on average, more than three times as long as a patient in Ontario for the same point in the same journey. For someone living in pain or unable to work, that gap is not an abstraction. It is the difference between a season and a year and a half.
Wait Times by Specialty
The national average hides enormous variation between specialties. Elective surgery, the kind most likely to be sought abroad, sits at the long end of the scale.
| Specialty | Median wait, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Neurosurgery | 49.9 weeks |
| Orthopaedic surgery (hip, knee, joint) | 48.6 weeks |
| Head and neck surgery | 43.8 weeks |
| Plastic surgery | 41.5 weeks |
| Gynaecology | 40.6 weeks |
| Ophthalmology (incl. cataract) | 31.8 weeks |
| National median, all specialties | 28.6 weeks |
Orthopaedic surgery is the clearest example of the squeeze. At 48.6 weeks, the typical wait is about 13.6 weeks longer than what orthopaedic specialists themselves describe as clinically reasonable. That is the gap that pushes many hip and knee patients to ask what their options are outside the public system. We cover that specific decision in hip and knee replacement abroad for Canadians.
The Procedures Canada Tracks Most Closely
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) measures whether patients receive certain priority procedures within nationally agreed benchmarks. Its most recent data shows how often the system hits those targets:
| Procedure | Benchmark | Met on time |
|---|---|---|
| Hip replacement | Within 182 days (6 months) | 68% |
| Knee replacement | Within 182 days (6 months) | 61% |
| Cataract surgery | Within 112 days | 69% |
Read those numbers the other way around: roughly one in three hip-replacement patients, nearly two in five knee-replacement patients, and almost a third of cataract patients do not get their surgery within the benchmark. For hip and knee replacement, performance is still below where it sat before 2019. Volumes have actually risen, surgeons are doing more operations than ever, but demand has risen faster.
It Is Not Just Surgery: Diagnostic Waits
Treatment often cannot even be scheduled until imaging confirms what is wrong, and that is its own queue. In 2025 the median waits were:
- MRI scan: 18.1 weeks
- CT scan: 8.8 weeks
- Ultrasound: 5.4 weeks
For a patient who needs an MRI before a surgical consult, those weeks are added on top of the referral and treatment waits above, not folded into them.
What the Waiting Actually Costs
A wait is not neutral. Pain persists, conditions can worsen, and people fall out of the workforce. The Fraser Institute estimates the value of time lost to waiting at roughly 4.2 billion dollars in lost wages and reduced productivity in 2025, and that figure counts only the working hours lost, not the personal toll of months spent in pain or on hold.
This is the context in which medical tourism stops being an abstract idea and becomes a practical question. If a hip replacement is a year away at home and eight weeks away abroad, the trade-off is no longer cost versus quality. For many patients it is simply time versus more time.
Why Canadians Look Abroad
Canadians travel for treatment for two distinct reasons, and it helps to separate them:
- To skip the queue. For procedures the public system covers but cannot deliver quickly, such as joint replacement, bariatric surgery or cataract surgery, the motivation is time. Patients pay out of pocket abroad to be treated in weeks rather than waiting many months at home.
- To access care the plan never covered. Provincial plans do not cover most cosmetic surgery or adult dental work at all. For these, the comparison is between paying privately in Canada and paying less abroad, which is why dental tourism and cosmetic surgery abroad are so common among Canadians.
If you are weighing the first path, our guide to whether medical tourism is worth it walks through the full cost-benefit, and the best countries for surgery abroad for Canadians compares the leading destinations on cost, flight time and quality.
The One Gap Patients Miss: What Happens If Something Goes Wrong
Here is the catch that catches Canadians off guard. When you leave the public system to be treated abroad, you also leave its safety net. Your provincial plan reimburses almost nothing for care outside Canada, and it does not cover a complication from elective surgery you arranged yourself. We explain this in detail in does provincial health insurance cover surgery abroad?
If you develop an infection, a clot or a wound complication after flying home, OHIP, RAMQ, MSP and the rest will not pay for treatment tied to a private procedure you obtained abroad. And standard travel insurance specifically excludes complications of elective surgery. That is the gap.
Specialized medical travel insurance for Canadians exists to close exactly that gap: it covers eligible complications arising from a planned procedure abroad, the scenario your provincial plan and ordinary travel insurance both leave out. It is bought before you travel and is separate from the surgery itself.
Sources and Methodology
Sources
- Total wait times, provincial and specialty breakdowns, and diagnostic waits: Fraser Institute, Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2025.
- Priority-procedure benchmark performance (hip, knee, cataract): Canadian Institute for Health Information, Wait Times for Priority Procedures in Canada, 2025 and CIHI Joint Replacement Wait Times.
Figures are the most recent published as of Q2 2026. Fraser Institute medians reflect physician-reported waits; CIHI benchmark performance reflects 2024 procedure data. This page is reviewed periodically.
Citing this page? Please link to https://aviaprotect.com/surgery-wait-times-canada. Journalists, clinicians and researchers are welcome to use these figures with attribution to the original sources above.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average wait time for surgery in Canada?
In 2025 the median wait from a GP referral to receiving treatment was 28.6 weeks across Canada, according to the Fraser Institute. That total breaks into 15.3 weeks waiting to see a specialist and 13.3 weeks from the specialist appointment to treatment. It is the second-longest wait the survey has ever recorded and roughly three times the 9.3 weeks measured in 1993.
Which Canadian province has the shortest surgery wait times?
Ontario reported the shortest median wait in 2025 at 19.2 weeks, followed by British Columbia at 32.2 weeks and Quebec at 32.5 weeks. The longest waits were in New Brunswick (60.9 weeks), Prince Edward Island (49.7 weeks) and Nova Scotia (49.0 weeks).
Which surgeries have the longest wait times in Canada?
By specialty, the longest median waits in 2025 were neurosurgery (49.9 weeks), orthopaedic surgery such as hip and knee replacement (48.6 weeks), head and neck surgery (43.8 weeks), plastic surgery (41.5 weeks) and gynaecology (40.6 weeks). For orthopaedic surgery the actual wait was about 13.6 weeks longer than what specialists themselves consider reasonable.
Why do Canadians travel abroad for surgery?
The most common reason is time. Long waits for elective procedures such as joint replacement, bariatric surgery and cataract surgery lead some Canadians to seek treatment abroad, where an operation can often be scheduled in weeks rather than months or years. Cost is a secondary driver for procedures provincial plans do not cover at all, such as most cosmetic surgery and adult dental work.
Does provincial health insurance cover surgery I get abroad?
Generally no. Provincial plans such as OHIP, RAMQ, MSP and AHCIP reimburse only small fixed amounts for emergency care abroad and do not cover elective surgery obtained outside Canada without prior written government approval, which is granted only when an equivalent service is unavailable in Canada. Planned surgery you arrange yourself abroad is paid out of pocket, which is why complication coverage is bought separately.
Related reading: Medical Travel Insurance for Canadians · Does Provincial Health Insurance Cover Surgery Abroad? · Hip & Knee Replacement Abroad for Canadians · Best Countries for Surgery Abroad for Canadians · Claiming Surgery Abroad on Your Canadian Taxes · Is Medical Tourism Worth It?