Navigating Canada’s Public Health Care System.
Canada’s health care system is dominated by long wait times – long waits to find a family doctor, long waits in emergency rooms, and long waits to receive specialist or hospital-based care (e.g. a hip operation), etc.
That’s not to say that patients never have positive experiences in the government-run health system ‒ many certainly do. The problem is that too many patients are falling between the cracks and aren’t receiving the care they need.
The information below is provided to help Canadians navigate and utilize the public system.
BRITISH COLUMBIA
The B.C. Government recommends patients register for the Health Connect Registry, which is an online registry that adds applicants to a list of people in need of a family doctor. Registration takes about five minutes. When a local family doctor or nurse practitioner becomes available, the team in your local community will contact you. They may also contact you to offer health care support while you wait to be matched with a physician.
Alternatively, the B.C. College of Family Physicians recommends patients contact HealthLink BC at 8-1-1 where a health service navigator can also help provide information on how to find a doctor in your area.
ALBERTA
Patients can use the Find a Family Doctor tool provided by Primary Care Networks to see who is available in your area. Patients can simply type in their location, and a list of doctors who are accepting new patients will accumulate.
Additionally, contacting HealthLink Alberta by dialing 8-1-1 is also an option to speak to someone who can guide you through the process of acquiring a family doctor. Enhanced primary care is also available through private providers for a supplemental fee (e.g. executive health services).
SASKATCHEWAN
As of time of writing (June 2024), the Saskatchewan Health Authority provides the following advice for finding a family doctor:
“You can ask friends or family to recommend a doctor. Or it may be helpful to ask another health care professional, such as a nurse or a doctor you’ve seen before.”
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan also has a physician search tool available for patients, where a practicing doctor will be listed depending on location. However, it is important to note that this feature does not show which clinics or physicians are accepting new patients, so it is recommended to connect with clinics in your area and see if they have availability.
MANITOBA
The provincial government hosts a tool called the Family Doctor Finder where patients can register online and be connected with a clinic in the area. Patients can also register by phone by calling their contact centre at +1 (866)-690-8260 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday.
ONTARIO
The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has established Health Care Connect where patients can register online or call +1 (800)-445-1822 to be put on a waitlist to find a doctor.
Alternatively, patients can also use the doctor search tool on the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario website. However, this feature will only show registered doctors in your area, not necessarily doctors who are accepting new patients at this time.
QUEBEC
The provincial government has a Family Doctor Finder tool where patients can register. Of note, wait times will vary depending on family doctor availability and the number of persons in your region without a family doctor.
NEW BRUNSWICK
NB Health Link is a new service that provides New Brunswickers with access to health care, either by sourcing them with a family doctor, or providing them temporarily with a family doctor while they wait for a permanent provider (including family physicians or nurse practitioners).
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick also has an online resource where patients can search and contact doctors in their area. However, this search feature will not indicate which doctors are currently accepting new patients.
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Residents can join the provincial Patient Registry by registering online or dialling +1 (855) 563-2101. Once a doctor becomes available in your area, the registry will connect with you to provide further details.
Of note, once you have registered for the Patient Registry, you will be eligible to see a doctor online through Maple – a telemedicine service provider that can connect you with a family doctor or nurse practitioner remotely (see below for more details).
NOVA SCOTIA
The province hosts a website entitled, “Need a Family Practice Registry” where patients can sign up for a waitlist by registering online or dialing 8-1-1.
NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
Patients can register via Patient Connect NL to be placed on a waiting list and find a family doctor in their area. A family care team or a primary care provider will connect with you as soon as a physician becomes available in your area.
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Unfortunately, the territorial government of the Northwest Territories does not have an online service where patients can register and be placed on a waitlist, or matched with a local physician.
As such, a list of physicians in the Northwest Territories can be found here and clinics can be contacted individually.
NUNAVUT
Due to its remoteness, Nunavut also does not provide an online service where patients can register and be notified when a family doctor becomes available.
However, the territory’s Department of Health provides contact numbers and a map to health care clinics where family physicians can be found.
YUKON
The territory has a match service for patients needing a family doctor. You may be matched with either a primary care physician or nurse practitioner under the program, and should you be matched with a nurse practitioner and your medical needs fall outside of the scope of the practitioner, you will maintain your place on the waiting list.
Once matched, the service will notify you and your matched provider by mail.
While useful resources, the websites above do not guarantee you will find a family doctor, or avoid any long waitlists. For example, the Patient Registry provided by the Government of Prince Edward Island shows that, as of May 2024, over 38,000 patients have registered and are waiting to be matched with a family physician.
As such, other options that could act as an interim solution and help alleviate wait times for patients to access primary health care are nurse practitioner clinics or virtual health care.
Virtual care, also known as telemedicine, is the delivery of medical services over the internet or phone. It’s any situation in which you communicate with a health care provider remotely, rather than in person. Telemedicine providers have become more available in Canada over the past few years, with the largest providers being:
Of note, while these providers are private companies, they connect patients to Canadian-licensed doctors and specialists from the public health care system via a virtual platform. They do not connect patients to private clinics, or practitioners outside of the country.
With each platform, patients may log in and speak with a nurse-practitioner and/or doctor from the comfort of their own home, instead of visiting a clinic in-person. Consultations usually take place over text, but the practitioner may request video chat or audio call if needed. Practitioners can then provide any diagnosis, prescription, online doctor’s note, or lab work online that they deem necessary, and prescriptions can be sent to your pharmacy of choice for pickup.
What’s more, telemedicine providers have much shorter wait times than in-person consultations. According to Maple’s website, “Wait times for on-demand visits with our general practitioners are usually a few minutes”, compared to normal wait times of hours when visiting clinics or emergency rooms.
However, it’s important to note that while the generic service provided by the practitioner is covered under your provincial health care plan, many telemedicine providers such as Maple may charge additional fees. This is because many virtual services to see a family doctor online aren’t covered by provincial health plans. However, if you have coverage through your employer, it may cover the cost of the online consultation.
Overall, telemedicine may be a good solution for non-emergency and non-surgical health ailments such as dermatology, endocrinology, mental health therapy, psychotherapy, general health assessments, and more. While you’d typically have to wait a considerable amount of time to see a specialist in-person, there’s no waitlist or referral needed to speak with many Canadian-licensed specialists on telemedicine platforms.
A company called Medimap has a helpful website that provides patients with information on wait times at local walk-in clinics. The site is updated in real time and has additional information on other local health providers – naturopaths, optometrists, physiotherapists and more.
Where a medical emergency arises, time is of the essence. Patients may require fast and efficient medical services during an emergency, but not all emergency facilities at hospitals are able to provide treatment in a timely manner. Whether because of a lack of hospital beds, low staffing, or high demand from patients, wait times at emergency departments across Canada can vary.
To assist Canadians in choosing which hospitals to go to for their emergency medical needs, many provinces provide online resources which show wait times at select hospitals. These online resources are frequently updated to provide Canadians with real time information.
BRITISH COLUMBIA
B.C. has live data updates provided every five minutes for many of its hospitals. Its website lists estimated wait times and expected lengths of stay. Patients simply enter their current address and the site will provide a list of hospitals in their local vicinity ‒ click here
ALBERTA
Alberta has data updated every two minutes for emergency rooms and urgent care in Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Red Deer ‒ click here
SASKATCHEWAN
Saskatchewan had a website for live emergency department wait times that was updated every 15 minutes. However, the website has recently been shut down, and it is unknown at this time if the provincial government will establish a new site where wait times can be viewed. It is recommended to check the below address often to see if the site has been updated and is functioning again ‒ click here
MANITOBA
Live emergency department wait times are available for three hospitals in Winnipeg; Grace Hospital, Health Sciences Center (both adults and children), and St. Boniface Hospital ‒ click here
ONTARIO
While Ontario does not offer information regarding live emergency department wait times, it does offer past monthly data of average wait times at more than 100 hospitals across the province ‒ click here
QUEBEC
Quebec has very comprehensive data for over 100 facilities. A patient can simply type in their postal code, and the site will display a list of hospitals near them. For each hospital, the site will also display up-to-date information, including the current estimated waiting time for non-priority cases to see a doctor, the number of people waiting in the emergency room, average time in the waiting room, etc. ‒ click here
NEW BRUNSWICK
New Brunswick has a website for emergency department wait times, but at time of writing (June 2024), the site was not working. The site displayed the following message:
“The estimated Emergency Department (ED) wait times for Horizon’s hospitals are currently unavailable to allow us to complete maintenance to make the estimated wait time information as accurate as possible. We hope to share the estimated ED wait times again by late summer.” In any case, to see the site ‒ click here
NOVA SCOTIA
Nova Scotia does not offer live data for wait times in emergency departments, but instead, offers predicted wait time forecasts at 14 hospitals across the province. Predicted wait times are updated every hour ‒ click here
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Prince Edward Island has a site that publishes the estimated wait times for four emergency departments across the province; Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Prince County Hospital, Kings County Memorial Hospital, and Western Hospital. Patients can click on the hospital of their choice to obtain up-to-date statistics on wait times ‒ click here
NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
Newfoundland and Labrador has data on surgery wait times, but no live information on emergency department wait times is available. To see the surgical wait times ‒ click here
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Wait times at emergency rooms in the Northwest Territories are currently not available.
NUNAVUT
Wait times at emergency rooms in Nunavut are currently not available.
YUKON
Wait times at emergency rooms in Yukon hospitals are currently not available.
Based on conversions with former health officials, patients and other observers, here are eight tips for patients to consider:
1) You Need an Advocate
When you need a health service that is complex (cancer treatment, hip operation, etc.) someone needs to advocate on your behalf – either yourself or someone close to you.
Too often, patients have been let down by assuming “the system” would contact them or that a doctor’s office would submit a referral or follow through on other commitments. It often helps to contact a specialist’s office to make sure they received your referral, call your family doctor and see if the results are in for a diagnostic test, etc. Some patients have even found it helpful to visit doctors’ offices in person to check in on their status. One patient we spoke with stated that by visiting her specialist’s office she was able to self-advocate as the staff noticed how much pain she was in and realized her case was classified wrongly. Her surgery was scheduled soon after.
You can also ask your family doctor to help advocate for you. They can sometimes help bump up the urgency of your case if it warrants prioritization. You can also discuss ideas about alternative services with your family doctor as they play a role in case management and may have ideas to help you (e.g. recommending pain management services, physiotherapy, private services, etc.)
In health care, there’s often truth to the saying “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”.
Community-based non-government organizations can also be a resource to help provide advice and guide you (e.g. the MS Society – Multiple Sclerosis, Canadian Mental Health Association, etc.) Patient groups created for the same condition you are facing can also be a resource to help provide advice and tips.
2) Ask to be Put on a Cancellation List
After your family doctor has made a referral of your case to a health facility, you can call the health facility and ask to be put on a cancellation list. This means if a patient ahead of you in line cancels, then you may be called at a moment’s notice to receive care. This does, however, require you to be ready to receive care in short order.
This is not always an option at all health facilities, but it is worth exploring.
3) Take Careful Notes
Take careful notes about your health care situation. Be sure to keep track of the date of each appointment, what was said, who said it, how long you were told it would take for your next appointment, follow-up items, date for surgery, a diagnostic scan, etc.
Be sure to track details on your condition as well. In some cases, you might be able to get copies of diagnostic scans, pathology reports, etc. In some provinces, such as Alberta, lab and diagnostic test results are available online. Check to see if your province has this service.
4) Other Public Options?
Don’t assume that the health care system will proactively discuss all the options available to you.
In B.C. patient Joan Hama’s case, she was never told that she could access a colonoscopy down the road in Vernon in a mere six weeks instead of waiting 32 weeks for the procedure in her city, Kelowna. Had she known about that option, she could have visited that clinic, detected her illness earlier and avoided her colon rupturing and the near death experience that came with it.
Be sure to ask if there are other health providers in the province that can provide an MRI faster, a more timely appointment with a specialist, faster surgery, etc. In some cases, you might even be able to travel to another province and receive the treatment there instead of waiting a long period locally.
5) Second Opinion: In some cases, it’s not a bad idea to get a second opinion. It might just save your life.
For example, while B.C.’s medical system told cancer patient Allison Ducluzeau that she only had between two months and two years to live, she decided to seek a second opinion from outside Canada. Four clinics outside of the country told her that she would actually be a good candidate for surgery. Allison eventually traveled to Baltimore for life-saving surgery and has since returned to work, has taken up running again and is thriving. Thankfully, she didn’t take the B.C. government up on its offer of assisted suicide.
Allison’s case is an extreme one, but it shows that having a second opinion can be important. In some cases, it might not be realistic if wait times to meet with another specialist are excessively long. In other cases, a second opinion might be a realistic option. It doesn’t hurt to ask your family doctor or specialist about this option.
6) Media or Public Advocates:
It can be inconvenient or embarrassing to share your personal health care story with the media, but if you have a particularly egregious case, this option can sometimes help move your case along.
In fact, it’s fairly common in Canada to see a patient’s health story in the news one day only for the media to report soon afterwards that the patient has finally received a date for surgery or the surgery itself.
For example:
- >After waiting more than 2.5 years for surgery, Ontario patient Bill Bagyan finally received surgery just five days after the CBC reported on his story in 2019.
- After raising concerns in local media about his long wait for brain surgery, Ontario patient Dean Baker was given a date for surgery shortly after.
- B.C. patient Devin Gallant’s surgery was postponed four times before he went to the media.A week later, Global news reported that he received surgery.
If you’re going to share your story with news media, we recommend keeping your story brief – media inboxes are often inundated with organizations and citizens pitching them stories. Explain in the first few sentences why your story is unique or particularly newsworthy.
Further, SecondStreet.org is always keen to hear from patients and has helped many bring their stories to light. You can email paula@secondstreet.org.
7) Provincial Politicians:
Provincial governments deliver health care in Canada. With that in mind, if you’re facing a particularly long wait for treatment, or if you’re receiving substandard care, you might find it helpful to contact your local provincial representative and see if they can help advocate on your behalf.
Further, opposition parties will often bring patients’ stories to light. With that in mind, you may wish to contact not only your local representative, and the Health Minister, but also the opposition critic and opposition candidate in your riding.
To find your local elected representative, see these links:
British Columbia – click here
Alberta – click here
Saskatchewan – click here
Manitoba – click here
Ontario – click here
Quebec – click here
Newfoundland and Labrador – click here
Nova Scotia – click here
Prince Edward Island – >click here
Northwest Territories – click here
Nunavut – click here
Yukon – click here
8) Be an Active Partner in Your Health:
While the aforementioned advice can help reduce your wait time for health services, waiting is often an unavoidable aspect of Canada’s public health care system.
With that in mind, it is important for patients to play an active role in their health. Simply put, what can be done to mitigate health problems while you wait for care? Did your doctor recommend weight loss before surgery? Regular exercise? Improving your diet? Quit smoking? These types of activities can often help improve patient health.
Be sure to check with your doctor to learn about what you can do to help improve your particular situation.
Toronto-based RCM Health Consultancy helps patients navigate Canada’s public health system and private options abroad. They specialize in helping patients with particularly complex cases.
To learn more about their services – click here
