Top 10 Worst Canadian Health Stories in 2024

 Think tank SecondStreet.org released today a list of the 10 worst health care stories in  Canada in 2024. SecondStreet.org compiled the list by combing through news stories throughout the year, filing information requests with governments and talking with patients.

“There are lots of good people that work in health care in Canada, but too often patients are falling between the cracks,” said Dom Lucyk, SecondStreet.org’s Communications Director. “Canada is one of the top spenders on health care in the world and yet we’re seeing a system that is failing from coast-to-coast. There were so many awful stories in health care this year, we had trouble narrowing it down to just 10.” 

Top 10 Worst Health Care Stories in 2024:

#10 – Scottish nurse moves to Ontario, held back from practicing due to red tape, opens dog daycare instead. How pawful! – click here

#9 – Hundreds of Calgary urology reports lost due to fax machine malfunctions – click here

#8 – Windsor Regional Hospital dumps $1 million on running failing Tim Hortons – click here

#7 – B.C. man told he’d be stuck in a wheelchair for life, travels for surgery instead  – click here

#6 – Manitoba woman lost leg due to 8-day wait to treat bedsores… after waiting 6 years for knee replacement ‒ click here

#5 – Sask. woman can barely eat due to painful stomach condition, faces year-long wait just to see a specialist – click here

#4 – As many as 15,000 emergency room deaths due to crowding  – click here

#3 – Taxpayers on the hook for man to travel to have fake vagina carved behind his penis, cancer patients who travel out of luck – click here

#2 – 115 Ontario patients die waiting for likely life-saving heart operations – click here

#1 – Footage released of New Brunswick man waiting dying after waiting 7 hours unattended in emergency room – click here

“There’s a federal election in 2025 so that does present an opportunity for politicians to commit to health reform,” added SecondStreet.org President Colin Craig. “Most of the reform that needs to take place is in the hands of provincial governments, though. What we really need to see is for provinces to start copying policies that have worked well in European countries.”