--- title: "Canada's priority wait times are not clinic phone access" description: "CIHI's 2025 report shows more priority surgeries than 2019 and longer MRI waits. Those benchmarks do not measure whether a clinic answered the phone." url: https://www.getarbol.com/en/blog/provincial-wait-times-canada/ lang: en --- # Canada's priority wait times are not clinic phone access CIHI's 2025 report shows more priority surgeries than 2019 and longer MRI waits. Those benchmarks do not measure whether a clinic answered the phone. [**Veronica Tobon** Medical Advisor, Clínica Sierra Vista](https://www.getarbol.com/en/blog/authors/veronica-tobon/) January 30, 2026 9 min read Canada’s best-known wait-time numbers describe a short list of priority procedures — hip and knee replacements, cataracts, cancer surgery, radiation, hip fracture repair, MRI and CT — not the minutes someone spends on hold trying to book a family-medicine visit. The Canadian Institute for Health Information’s 2025 report shows that in 2024 the country completed substantially more of those procedures than in 2019, while several benchmark-attainment rates and imaging waits remained worse than before the pandemic. That is a real system story. It is not a clinic phone-access story, and treating the two as interchangeable is how planners talk past front-office staff. Key takeaways - In 2024 Canada completed 26% more hip replacements, 21% more knee replacements, 11% more cataract surgeries, 7% more cancer surgeries, and 16% more MRI and CT scans than in 2019. - Benchmark attainment in 2024: 68% of hip and 61% of knee replacements within 6 months; 69% of cataracts within 112 days; median MRI waits were 15 days longer than in 2019. - CIHI priority-procedure waits start after a specialist decides to treat; they do not measure primary-care phone answer rates or after-hours clinic coverage. - England's GP appointment series and Canada's priority-procedure dashboard are both high-quality public statistics — and they measure different clocks. ## What CIHI actually measured in the 2025 release On 12 June 2025, CIHI published [Wait times for priority procedures in Canada, 2025](https://www.cihi.ca/en/wait-times-for-priority-procedures-in-canada-2025), covering activity through 2024 against a 2019 pre-pandemic baseline. The volume sentence on the landing page is the cleanest summary available: > In 2024, there were 26% more hip replacements, 21% more knee replacements, 11% more cataract surgeries, 7% more cancer surgeries and 16% more MRI and CT scans completed across Canada than in 2019. More completed procedures is not the same as shorter waits. CIHI’s own framing is that surgical volumes recovered and in several categories exceeded 2019, while the share of patients treated within recommended benchmarks often remained below pre-pandemic levels, and diagnostic imaging median waits lengthened. Volume recovered — and then some Percentage more procedures completed in 2024 than in 2019 % increase vs 2019 Fuente: CIHI, Wait times for priority procedures in Canada, 2025 ## Benchmarks: where patients still wait past the target The same report’s attainment figures are the ones most often quoted in Canadian health debate, and they should be quoted with the benchmark attached — not as free-floating percentages. For joint replacement, CIHI reports that in 2024 more patients across Canada received hip (**68%**) and knee (**61%**) replacements within the **recommended 6 months**, compared with recent prior years, while those shares remained below 2019 levels. CIHI’s accompanying news release restates the same rates against a **26-week** benchmark wording (68% for hip, 61% for knee), versus 75% and 70% respectively in 2019. Six months and 26 weeks are the same target written two ways; the percentages are not in dispute between the landing page and the release. For cataracts, **69%** of patients were treated within the **recommended 112 days** (the news release’s parallel wording is the **16-week** benchmark), versus 70% in 2019. Radiation therapy within **28 days** stood at **94%**, and hip fracture repair within **48 hours** at **83%** — each three percentage points below 2019. Median waits for cancer surgery rose by one to five days for most tumour sites, with prostate surgery showing the largest increase at nine days. Diagnostic imaging is the clearest “longer than 2019” line in the report: median wait times rose by **15 days for MRI scans** and by **3 days for CT scans** over that period. 2024 benchmark attainment Priority procedures within recommended waits 68% Hip replacements within 6 months CIHI 2025 61% Knee replacements within 6 months CIHI 2025 69% Cataracts within 112 days CIHI 2025 Fuente: CIHI, Wait times for priority procedures in Canada, 2025 Imaging and acute benchmarks Where 2024 still trails 2019 +15 days Change in median MRI wait vs 2019 CIHI 2025 94% Radiation therapy within 28 days CIHI 2025 83% Hip fracture repair within 48 hours CIHI 2025 Fuente: CIHI, Wait times for priority procedures in Canada, 2025 ## Why these numbers are not a clinic’s phone metric CIHI priority wait times generally start when a specialist decides that a procedure is needed and stop when the procedure is performed. They do not start when a patient first tries to reach a family physician. They do not count abandoned calls, evening voicemail, or the days spent waiting for a referral appointment before the priority clock even begins. Provincial reporting also differs from pan-Canadian definitions enough that CIHI publishes exception notes for readers who drill into the interactive tool — a reminder that even within this carefully defined domain, jurisdictions are not perfectly interchangeable. That non-comparability is the editorial point of putting this release next to primary-care access writing. England publishes monthly counts of general practice appointments and same-day shares; Canada’s best national wait dashboard publishes specialist-procedure benchmarks. Both are high-quality public statistics. Neither answers “did the clinic pick up?” A reader jumping from [NHS GP appointment access](https://www.getarbol.com/en/blog/nhs-gp-appointment-access/) to CIHI hips and knees without naming the unit of analysis will invent a false league table. Different instruments Do not build a false international league table What you are looking at CIHI Canada (2024 activity) NHS England GP series Unit Priority procedures after treatment decision Appointments recorded in GP/PCN books Clock starts Specialist decides to treat Appointment is booked in the system Phone abandonment Not measured Not measured in the national bulletin Useful for Surgical/imaging system performance Primary-care booked activity and mode Fuente: CIHI 2025 priority procedures; NHS England Digital Appointments in General Practice Three clocks in Canadian access debates Referral, priority procedure, and clinic intake Before the CIHI clock Getting to a specialist decision Family-medicine access, referral waits, and incomplete work-ups that never start the priority timer. CIHI clock Priority procedure wait Hip, knee, cataract, cancer, radiation, fracture, MRI/CT — after the decision to treat. Clinic clock Phone and booking intake Answer rate, abandonment, after-hours disposition, confirmation — local operations. Only the third clock is under a single clinic's day-to-day control — and CIHI's national charts will not reveal it. The closer operational cousin to clinic telephony is the US after-hours phone gap — unanswered evening demand that never becomes a scheduled visit — laid out in [after-hours calls as a practice cost](https://www.getarbol.com/en/blog/after-hours-calls-practice-cost/). Canadian clinics face their own version of that problem under different payment and provincial rules; CIHI’s 2025 charts will not reveal it. Different clocks, different problems Priority-procedure wait times measure the interval after a treatment decision. Primary-care phone access measures whether demand can enter the system at all. Improving one does not automatically improve the other, and citing hip-replacement benchmarks in a debate about family-medicine call centres is a category error. ## How to use the 2025 report without misusing it Board and ops briefings Cite CIHI carefully - Cite volume and benchmarks together '26% more hips than 2019' without '68% within six months' hides that throughput rose while on-time performance stayed below the pre-pandemic mark. - Keep MRI's +15 days attached to MRI It is a median-wait change for imaging, not a proxy for every provincial outpatient queue. - Use provincial views for provincial decisions National averages smooth real differences; CIHI's regional tools exist because landing-page percentages are a starting point. - Leave clinic telephony on a separate dashboard Answer rate, abandonment, and after-hours disposition belong next to panel size — not cataract 112-day attainment. - Say the non-comparability out loud When briefing boards that also read NHS or US access pieces, name the clock before quoting a percentage. Frequently asked questions Did Canada complete more priority procedures in 2024 than in 2019? Yes. CIHI reports 26% more hip replacements, 21% more knee replacements, 11% more cataract surgeries, 7% more cancer surgeries, and 16% more MRI and CT scans completed across Canada in 2024 than in 2019. Are hip and knee replacement waits back to 2019 levels? Not on benchmark attainment. In 2024, 68% of hip and 61% of knee replacements occurred within the recommended 6 months (26 weeks), versus 75% and 70% respectively in 2019 according to CIHI's accompanying release. Do CIHI wait times measure clinic phone access? No. Priority-procedure wait times generally start when a specialist decides that a procedure is needed; they do not count abandoned primary-care calls, evening voicemail, or referral waits before the priority clock begins. Canada did more priority procedures in 2024 than in 2019. Many patients still cleared their benchmarks less often than before the pandemic, and people waited longer for MRI. Those are CIHI’s findings, and they are enough without conscripting them into a story about who answered the clinic phone. For clinic operators, the practical split is simple. Use CIHI when the board asks whether surgical and imaging throughput recovered after the pandemic, and whether benchmark attainment is still lagging. Use local telephony and booking dashboards when the board asks whether patients can reach the clinic to start any of that pathway. A practice that improves after-hours confirmation will not move the national MRI median by fifteen days — and a province that shortens hip-replacement waits will not automatically empty the primary-care phone queue. Keeping those sentences separate is how Canadian access debates stay honest. For English-language context on scheduling and access product work, see [Arbol’s English home](https://www.getarbol.com/en/). Disclaimer This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. ## Keep reading Canada **Keep reading** Canada Practice operations ### [Phone overflow is eating Canadian clinic capacity](https://www.getarbol.com/en/blog/clinic-phone-overflow-canada/) CIHI and CMAJ show Canadians struggle to reach primary care by phone. Overflow is not a soft inconvenience — it is lost capacity your clinic already paid for. Samuel Giraldo Mar 20, 2026 12 min read Read the article ### More to read Canada Practice operations ### [OHIP appointment access in Ontario: an operator’s guide](https://www.getarbol.com/en/blog/ohip-appointment-access-ontario/) Health Care Connect attaches patients to primary care; your clinic phone still decides whether OHIP coverage becomes a booked visit. What operators can fix. David Lara Apr 17, 2026 11 min read Canada Practice operations ### [No-show fees at Canadian clinics: the debate you are not measuring](https://www.getarbol.com/en/blog/no-show-fees-canada-clinics/) CPSO allows a reasonable fee for missed visits with notice rules — but fees do not fix the phone overflow and wait that create the no-show. Measure that gap first. Emilia Santander May 22, 2026 9 min read Canada Access ### [Clinic no-shows in Canada: a sober playbook](https://www.getarbol.com/en/blog/no-show-clinic-canada/) A practical Canadian clinic guide to measuring no-shows, designing reminders and fees without theatre, and closing the phone gap that creates empty chairs. Samuel Giraldo Jun 7, 2026 14 min read ## Let’s look at your population in Arbol. A 30-minute video call with our team, using your cases: your contract, your patients and your channels. You leave with a first read of your population, your contract and your utilization rates. 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