iN NUMBERS: Specialist waitlists worsen impacting patients and doctors

It’s no secret that it’s tough to see a specialist in B.C. The odds are pretty good that you or someone you know has run into a long waitlist.

Doctors of BC surveyed more than 1,000 specialists and family doctors to find out what’s going on. Respondents said things have gotten worse.

“As the primary care access crisis is addressed, more patients will have a primary care provider to refer to specialists, but with less access to specialists, a new bottleneck is created. Action is required now to support our specialists, otherwise, they will leave or find other work,” an anonymous specialist said in the Doctors of BC press release.

Here are the numbers:

• 36 per cent of specialists surveyed said they have closed their practice to new referrals or might have to do so in the next year.
• 5 per cent of specialists surveyed said they have already closed their practice to new referrals.
• 70 per cent of specialists surveyed said they are experiencing “moral distress” because they can’t give patients the care they need.
• 90 per cent of family doctors surveyed said it has been hard to get their patients access to specialists in the past year.
• 80 per cent of specialists surveyed said there aren’t enough of them to meet B.C.’s needs.
• 4: weeks is the average wait time to see a specialist in an urgent case.
• 12 months or more is the average wait time for many specialties.
• 10 per cent. That’s how much waitlists increased between 2024 and 2025.
• 70 per cent of specialists surveyed said there was an increase in their waitlist over the last year.