Health-care waits cost Nova Scotians in more ways than one

Nova Scotians are well aware of the problems with their health-care system. Tim Houston rode a wave of health-care discontent into office in 2021, and health care has been a major focus of his government ever since. Unfortunately, data from a recent study show that the province’s wait times are costing Nova Scotians millions of dollars in impacted productivity and personal time.

The province’s median wait time for treatment after seeing a specialist is 18.3 weeks, and wait times carry real personal costs including continued pain and discomfort, psychological suffering and worsened treatment outcomes. And unfortunately, some will die while waiting for treatment.

According to the same study (based on data from Statistics Canada), wait times adversely affect an estimated 13.2 per cent of patients in the province who may not be able to work (or are less able at work) or are less able to enjoy their personal lives.

Because all this time has personal value to the individuals waiting, we can estimate the impact of these waits for treatment using Nova Scotia’s wage data. Indeed, Nova Scotians lost an estimated $217,970,000 in wages, productivity and impacted time while waiting for treatment in 2025 (the latest year of available data). This represents an average cost per patient of $3,317. And if we include hours outside of work (while excluding eight hours per night for sleep), this figure balloons to $660,086,000 or $10,045 per patient.

And this estimate is likely conservative because it excludes the wait to see a specialist (30.7 weeks) in the first place.

To be sure, the Houston government has implemented a number of reforms meant to improve access to health care including health-care worker recruitment and retention efforts, a new medical school in Cape Breton, centralizing health records, new hospital infrastructure, extending operating room hours, and even partnering with private clinics to deliver less complex surgeries.

But here’s the problem. Despite good intentions from the Houston government, to some degree these reforms help maintain the overall flawed approach to health care that Canadians have tolerated for decades, where we pay for one of the most expensive universal health-care systems in the developed world yet have some of the fewest physicians, the longest waits and, crucially, few alternatives for faster treatment. Is it any wonder that thousands of Canadians, including Nova Scotians, travel abroad for care?

Premier Houston is right to focus on the province’s poor-performing health-care system. But to unlock real change and provide relief for Nova Scotians who are suffering on wait lists, the government must get serious about bold reforms.