Poll suggests long wait times led half of Canadians to avoid going to the hospital

A recent poll conducted by Léger on behalf of right-leaning think-tanks the Montreal Economic Institute, SecondStreet.org and Canadian Constitution Foundation suggests that long wait times have led half of Canadians to avoid going to the hospital. The survey, which ran from October 16 to 19, 2026, polled 1,510 Canadians online. The highest percentage of respondents - those who avoided consulting doctors due to wait times - came from women, individuals over 55 and Quebecers.

The survey did not specify whether the individuals who avoided seeing a doctor had opted for other healthcare services like nurses or pharmacists, or if they had been avoiding hospitals due to wait times for the past year or at a different point in their lives. Around 25% of poll respondents admitted to paying for private healthcare to circumvent wait times or poor service.

The survey also found that 61% of respondents supported the option of paying out of pocket or using insurance to access private care if they couldn't receive timely care in the public system. However, a quarter of respondents expressed opposition to the coexistence of public and private healthcare systems. When asked if they believed their local health-care system needed change, 84% of respondents said yes.

The Canadian Research Insights Council, the professional body of the polling industry, has stated that online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error as they do not randomly sample the population.