NBHC Care Experience
September 21, 2017
The think-tank contends that despite spending more on healthcare than almost every other comparable country with universal healthcare, Canada ranks near the bottom in the number of physicians and acute care beds - and patients face the longest wait times. In 2015, Canada's healthcare spending as a share of GDP stood at 10.6%, the third highest - after adjusting for age - behind only Switzerland and France. The Fraser Institute says the country ranks poorly on a number of indicators:
- Canada ranks 25th out of 29 countries for number of physicians (2.7 per 1,000 people);
- Canada ranks last for the number of acute care beds -- 2.1 per 1,000 people;
- Canada ranks 20 out of 27 for the number of MRI machines with 9.8 MRI scanners per million people; and
- As for wait times, Canada performed the worst with the highest percentage of patients (30%) who waited two months or longer for a specialist appointment, and the highest percentage of patients (18%) who waited four months or longer for elective surgery.
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