Canada ranked last on the timeliness of both specialist and elective surgical care.
health care wait times
In 2021, the median wait in Alberta between seeing a general practitioner and receiving treatment was 32.1 weeks.
Canadians could expect a median wait time of 49.2 weeks for neurosurgery.
Albertans waited 32.1 weeks for medically necessary treatment—6.5 weeks longer than the Canadian average.
In 2021, Canadians could expect to wait 25.6 weeks (on average) between referral to treatment.
The province's MRI wait time was longer than the national average.
Since 1999, the provincial government increased health-care spending by more than 78 per cent.
Canada ranked last on timely access to specialist consultations and elective/non-emergency surgery.
The elective surgery queue cost 1.2 million Canadians a total of $2.8 billion in lost wages and productivity.