The Burrow
Nov 26, 2024
Most people need to see the doctor at some point, even if it’s just for a routine checkup. But if there’s only 100 or so doctors for 10,000 people, that inevitably means people are going to have to wait in line.
And if you needed surgery, you’d have to wait again after seeing the general physician (GP) before seeing the specialist and having your surgery.
As health insurance experts, we were curious what the waiting times were for seeing a doctor and having elective surgery in different countries across the world. We gathered the data for 10 nations.
Here are the results.
In the study, most countries performed pretty similarly when it came to seeing a primary physician or GP, while elective surgeries range from one to two or more months – but Canada’s elective surgery waiting list eclipsed all other countries by far.
Canada’s wait times for elective surgery were twice as long as Spain’s (the next worst on the list) at 194 days, or just over half a year on average. This average wait time was almost seven times longer than Switzerland’s and America’s (the best performing countries for elective surgeries).
While clear like-for-like data showing average wait times for GP appointments in Canada is not included in our chart below, statistics for some regions of Canada show patients have very long waits just to get connected with a physician.
Drivers behind wait times in Canada include:
In contrast, every other country except America had an average wait time of 10 days or less (21 days for the USA).
N.B. Canada’s wait times for primary physician/GP appointments is left blank due to a lack of clear like-for-like data.
Switzerland has the shortest average waiting times for a GP at just two days, and an average wait of 28 days for elective surgery. The USA also had an average elective surgery wait list of 28 days, but it’s average wait for a GP was 21 days, which was more than twice as long as all other countries – apart from Canada.
The next best performing countries were Germany and Italy. Germany had an average wait of four days for a GP, while in Italy it was 10 days. Italy had an average wait of 29 days for elective surgery, while Germany had an average wait of 31 days.
Australia performed well for GP visits at four days but had a longer average wait for elective surgery at 48 days.
N.B. The average wait times for elective surgery is based on all categories of surgery. Depending on the specific kind of surgery and condition that it’s treating, wait lists can be shorter for patients requiring crucial urgent care, but longer for patients with a condition that’s less threatening to the patient’s life.
You might assume that the more doctors there are working in a country, the shorter the waiting time would be for appointments and elective surgeries. However, comparing the waiting times to the number of doctors in each country, there is no correlation in any nation except for Canada.
Sweden and Spain had the highest number of doctors per capita (71.5 for Sweden and 44.8 for Spain), but they had some of the longer elective surgery waiting lists out of all countries analysed (77 days for Spain and 50 days for Sweden).
That said, Canada did have the lowest number of doctors per capita of all 10 nations at 25.0, so it is likely playing a part behind Canada’s long elective surgery waiting lists, but the data doesn’t show any discernible pattern for the other countries.
Each country analysed has a different health system. Several have private health systems, including Australia, where patients with private health can usually avoid public waiting lists for inpatient hospital care. Steven Spicer, Executive General Manager of Health, Life and Energy at Compare the Market, notes how private health insurance puts more choice in patients’ hands.
“With private health insurance in Australia, a hospital policy can provide you with greater choice than going through the public system. You can often choose your preferred available doctor, be treated in a private hospital, and avoid the public waiting list for surgery,” says Mr Spicer.
“This can often help you get the treatment you need faster and take charge of your healthcare.”
The chart combined a few different data sources together. The average wait time for elective surgery in Canada was taken from this Statista report, with the average number of weeks turned into days.
All other countries had their waiting times for primary care physicians and elective surgeries taken from this Statista report. The number of medical doctors per 10,000 was sourced from the World Health Organization.
Elective surgery waiting list times are based on both private and public hospitals in each country. Physician appointments are also based on both private and publicly funded appointments.
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