An estimated 63,459 Canadians travelled abroad for medical care in 2016—up nearly 40 per cent over the previous year, according to the Fraser Institute.

“More and more Canadians clearly feel they must leave the country to get the medical care they need,” said Yanick Labrie, Fraser Institute senior fellow and co-author of Leaving Canada for Medical Care, 2017.

Seven out of the 10 provinces saw an increase of patients leaving the country for treatments. Only Newfoundland and Labrador, P.E.I. and New Brunswick saw a decline.

“Considering Canada’s long health-care wait times, which can result in increased suffering for patients and decreased quality of life, it’s not surprising that so many Canadians are travelling abroad for medical treatment,” Labrie said.

Most patients, about 9,454, travelled abroad for general surgeries. The next highest treatments are for urology (6,426), internal medicine procedures such as olonoscopies, gastroscopies and angiographies (5,095) and ophthalmology treatment (3,990).

Canadians may be leaving the country because of long wait times.

In 2016, according to the Fraser Institute’s annual measurement of health-care wait times, patients waited 10.6 weeks for medically necessary treatment after seeing a specialist—almost four weeks longer than what physicians consider clinically “reasonable.”

British Columbians doctors report having the highest proportion of patients leaving (2.4 per cent) while Ontario saw the largest number of patients (26,513) who left the country for treatment.

Estimated number of patients that received treatment outside of Canada in 2016 (by province):