N.S. saw the highest wait-list deaths in the Maritimes last year: report

A sign outside Dartmouth General Hospital is pictured. (Jonathan MacInnis/CTV Atlantic)

A new report on wait-list deaths in Canada features numbers from the Maritime provinces, showing Nova Scotia had the most in the region.

The report from public policy think tank SecondStreet.org shows at least 23,746 patients died in Canada while waiting for surgeries or diagnostic procedures between April 2024 and March 2025.

The figures are a three per cent increase from the previous year.

Ontario recorded the highest number of wait-list deaths in the country at 10,634.

The numbers for the Maritimes are as follows:

• Nova Scotia: 727
• Prince Edward Island: 178
• New Brunswick: 121

SecondStreet.org says it filed freedom of information requests to more than 40 government health departments, health authorities and health regions across the country.

The think tank was looking for data on cases where patients were removed from surgical and diagnostic waiting lists as a result of their death.

It says many provinces provided incomplete data, including Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, which only provided data for surgical waiting list deaths. Alberta and some parts of Manitoba provided none.

The report says Nova Scotia Health was previously the “most insightful” when it comes to data related to patients who may have died because of a long waiting period for treatment.

“For instance, their response for waiting list deaths during the fiscal year 2022-23 noted there were 532 total waiting list deaths, but only 50 were cases where patients were waiting for procedures that could have potentially saved their lives,” the report said.

SecondStreet.org called the health authority’s most recent response “disappointing.“

“They have since embraced the substandard response format used by other provinces that lacks analysis. Multiple emails to their government about this change were not returned,” the report reads.

With files from CTVNews.ca

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