Report shows Canadians are waiting longer for surgery, but Alberta is seeing some improvement

New data shows wait times increased for Canadians seeking priority surgeries, but Alberta is making progress in some areas.

A new report shows the wait list for Canadians needing critical surgeries continues to grow and fewer people are receiving the procedures within recommended times.

The data collected from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) shows the wait for priority procedures—including knee and hip replacements, cancer surgeries and diagnostic imaging—is longer now than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re still continuing to face shortages, which impact the ability of systems to really address the wait times for patients,” said Cheryl Chui, CIHI’s director of health system analytics.

“For patients who are waiting longer than the recommended timeframe, this could have impacts on the pain that they’re experiencing ... their mobility in the case of, say, joint replacement procedures, their quality of life.”

The benchmarks for knee and hip replacements recommend patients receive procedures within six months, but only 68 per cent of hip replacements and 61 per cent of knee replacements happened within that deadline last year.

That’s down from 75 and 70 per cent, respectively, in 2019.

The long, painful wait

Longtime Postmedia visual journalist Jim Wells is among the thousands of Canadians on a growing wait list for surgery.

“The top of my femur is disintegrating. I’ve got some very deep bone bruising all the way down my thigh. I’ve got some stress fractures, you know, as well as all the cartilage and stuff that’s missing,” Wells said.

It’s been six months since Wells’ doctor told him he needed a hip replacement.

He is scheduled to meet his surgeon for the first time in a month and hopes a surgery date comes soon after that.

“You’ve just got to be patient. I know for a fact that there’s a lot more people that are worse off than me,” said Wells, who now walks slowly and painfully with a cane and is unable to perform most of the regular duties of his job.

Wells is right that many people have been waiting much longer than he has.

Several people who reached out to CTV News but did not want to talk on camera say they’ve been waiting for knee or hip procedures for more than a year and have yet to have an appointment set to meet a surgeon.

Others say MRI and CT scans are being booked more than a year out.

Alberta seeing some gains

While the national picture shows longer waits, Alberta is seeing some improvement in a number of the procedures tracked.

In 2024, 73 per cent of Albertans needing a hip replaced had the procedure done within six months, a significant jump from 58 per cent in the year prior.

For knee replacements, 62 per cent of people received surgery within the recommended time last year, up from just 49 per cent in 2023.

But the median wait times for cancer surgeries, MRIs and CT scans in Alberta all increased in 2024 compared to 2023.

“Alberta’s government knows there is more work to do to, particularly on cancer surgical wait times. We are committed to improving the timeliness and accessibility of health care in the province to ensure every Albertan receives the care they need within clinically recommended timelines,” reads part of a statement from the province’s new Ministry of Hospital and Surgical Services.

“Alberta continues to perform better than the national average for wait times in four areas: hip replacement, hip fracture repair, knee replacement and radiation therapy.”

The province also performed more than 318,000 total surgeries in the 2024-25 fiscal year, which is a record for Alberta and more than the projected target of 310,000.

“So, there are there are areas where we can see some of the many strategies that provinces like Alberta are trying are starting to show an effect,” said Chui.