At least 15,000 Canadians died in a single year while waiting for their “free” government healthcare, some of them having been on the waiting list for more than 14 years, according to a new report from Saskatchewan-based think tank SecondStreet.org.
In a January 15 press release, SecondStreet.org legislative and policy director Harrison Fleming said:
Canadians pay really high taxes and yet our health care system is failing when compared to better-performing universal systems in Europe. Thousands of Canadians across the country find themselves on waitlists — in some cases for several years — with too many tragically dying before ever getting treated, or even diagnosed.
Wait Loss
SecondStreet.org filed Freedom of Information requests with various provincial healthcare bodies, seeking data on patients who had died while awaiting treatment between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024.
From the responses it received, the group was able to determine that “at least 15,474 patients died in Canada while waiting for surgeries or diagnostic scans.”
However, that count is based on data from “only 12 health bodies in seven provinces (representing 62% of the population),” and some of those only provided data indicating patients who died while awaiting surgery but not those who died while awaiting diagnostic scans. Extrapolating from the available data, SecondStreet.org estimated that 28,077 patients died in the government’s healthcare queue. […]
— Read More: thenewamerican.com
