VANCOUVERâCanadian patients waited longer than ever this year for medical treatment, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. The study, an annual survey of physicians from across Canada, reports a median wait time of 22.6 weeksâthe longest ever recordedâand 143 per cent higher than the 9.3 weeks Canadians waited in 1993, when national estimates of the wait for medically necessary elective treatments were first calculated. Before this year, the longest recorded median wait time was 21.2 weeks in 2017. âExcessively long wait times remain a defining characteristic of Canadaâs health-care systemâ said Bacchus Barua, associate director of the Fraser Instituteâs Centre for Health Policy Studies and co-author of Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2020. âWhile this yearâs reported wait times have been undoubtedly influenced by the ongoing pandemic, historical data suggests they are also the result of decades of policy inertia.â