File a Health Care Complaint. Your story can help drive real change.

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Complaint

Make a Health Care Complaint

Long waits. Cancelled surgeries. Denied care. 

Canadians are even dying on waitlists but governments don’t publish the data

We do. Tell us what happened — your story can help drive real policy change.

  • Cited by NDP, Conservative and Liberal politicians
  • Sparked Debbie's Law in Manitoba and BC
  • Your details stay private unless you say otherwise

Tell Us What Happened

Takes about 3 minutes. All fields except name and email are optional.

Step 1 of 3 - Your Info

We may follow up to confirm details. We never share your number.
Which province's health care system are you reporting on?

How It Works

1

Submit Your Story

Tell us what happened — short or detailed, your call. The form takes about three minutes.

2

We May Follow Up

If we want to feature your story, a researcher will reach out to confirm details and ask permission.

3

Your Story Drives Change

We use real Canadians’ experiences in reports, columns and videos that politicians actually read.

Why Governments Want You to Stay Quiet

Provincial governments routinely inspect private businesses and publish reports on every workplace injury, every health code violation. But when a patient dies waiting for surgery they were promised in three weeks? Silence.

SecondStreet.org has spent years using freedom-of-information requests to pry that data loose — and it’s why NDP, Conservative and Liberal politicians now cite our research in Parliament. Your story becomes part of the public record they can’t ignore.

What You Can Report

If any of these sound like your experience — or a loved one’s — we want to hear it. Pick the closest match below and tell us your story in the form. Don’t worry about getting the category exactly right; we’ll sort it out.

01

Long Wait for Surgery

Waiting weeks, months, or years past the medically recommended window.

02

Cancelled or Delayed Procedure

Surgery, scan, or specialist appointment cancelled, rescheduled, or pushed back repeatedly.

03

Loved One Died on a Waiting List

A family member passed away while waiting for diagnosis or treatment.

04

Denied Care or Treatment

Turned away, refused referral, or told a treatment wasn’t covered when it should have been.

05

Forced to Pay Privately

Couldn’t wait — paid out of pocket in Canada or travelled to another country for care.

06

No Family Doctor

On a waiting list for a family doctor, or losing one with no replacement.

Join 20,000+ Canadians in our movement for a better Canada.

Even if you don’t have a story to share, you can still help. Add your name to our list of 20,000+ Canadians pushing for better policies in health care, education, and affordability.

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Stories That Drove Change

These are real Canadians whose experiences helped shape SecondStreet’s research and pushed politicians to act. Yours could be next.

Real Stories

STORY: Albertan unable to get necessary surgery in his own province

June 15, 2026
SecondStreet.org interviewed Jeff Krushell, an Albertan who couldn't pay for necessary surgery in his own province.

Real Stories

STORY: Another Canadian Gets Life-Saving Care Abroad

May 28, 2025
SecondStreet.org interviewed Lorne Johnson, a Canadian cancer patient who travelled to the U.S. for life-saving surgey.

Real Stories

STORY: Canadian Gets Life-Saving Care Abroad

May 21, 2025
SecondStreet.org interviewed Bruce, a Manitoba man who travelled to the U.S. for life-saving surgey.

Prevention – reduce demand in the first place

If Canadians lived healthier lives, we could reduce demand for emergency services, orthopaedic surgeries, primary care and more. 

For instance, if you visit the Canadian Cancer Society’s website, you’ll read that “about four in ten” cancer cases are preventable. The Heart and Stroke Foundation notes that “almost 80 percent of premature heart disease and stroke can be prevented through healthy behaviours.” A similar number of Diabetes cases are also preventable. 

Many joint replacements and visits to ERs and walk-in clinics could also be avoided through healthy living. 

To be sure, not all health problems can be avoided through healthy living – everyday the system treats Canadians with genetic conditions, helps those injured in unavoidable accidents and more.  

But there is an opportunity to reduce pressure on the health care system through Canadians shifting to healthier lifestyles – better diets, more exercise, etc. 

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see this column. 

Partner with non-profits and for-profit clinics

European countries will partner with anyone who can help patients. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s a non-profit, a government entity or a private clinic. What matters is that patients receive quality treatment, in a timely manner and for a competitive price.  

In Canada, governments often delivery services using government-run hospitals instead of seeing if non-profit or private clinics could deliver the services more effectively. 

When governments have partnered with non-profit and private clinics, the results have often been quite good – Saskatchewan, Ontario and British Columbia are just a few examples of where partnerships have worked well. 

Canada should pursue more of these partnerships to reduce wait times and increase the volume of services provided to patients.  

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see the links above. 

Make cross border care more accessible

In Canada, citizens pay high taxes each year and we’re promised universal health care services in return. The problem is, wait times are often extremely long in our health system – sometimes patients have to wait years to see a specialist or receive surgery. 

If patients don’t want to wait long periods, they often have to reach into their own pocket and pay for treatment outside the province or country. 

Throughout the European Union, we also find universal health care systems. But a key difference is that EU patients have the right to go to other EU countries, pay for surgery and then be reimbursed by their home government. Reimbursements cover up to what the patient’s home government would have spent to provide the treatment locally. 

If Canada copied this approach, a patient waiting a year to get their hip operation could instead receive treatment next week in one of thousands of surgical clinics throughout the developed world. 

Governments benefit too as the patient is now back on their feet and avoiding complications that sometimes come with long wait times – meaning the government doesn’t have to treat those complications on top of the initial health problem. 

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or this shorter video. 

Legalize access to non-government providers

Canada is the only country in the world that puts up barriers, or outright bans patients from paying for health services locally. 

For instance, a patient in Toronto cannot pay for a hip operation at a private clinic in Toronto. Their only option is to wait for the government to eventually provide treatment or leave the province and pay elsewhere. 

Countries with better-performing universal health care systems do not have such bans. They allow patients a choice – use the public system or pay privately for treatment. Sweden, France, Australia and more – they all allow choice. 

Why? One reason is that allowing choice means some patients will decide to pay privately. This takes pressure off the public system. For instance, in Sweden, 87% of patients use the public system, but 13% purchase private health insurance. 

Ultimately, more choice improves access for patients. 

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or watch this short clip on this topic. 

Shift to funding services for patients, not bureaucracies

In Canada, most hospitals receive a cheque from the government each year and are then asked to do their best to help patients. This approach is known as “block funding”. 

Under this model, a patient walking in the door represents a drain on the hospital’s budget. Over the course of a year, hospital administrators have to make sure the budget stretches out so services are rationed. This is why you might have to wait until next year or the year after for a hip operation, knee operation, etc. 

In better-performing universal health systems, they take the opposite approach – hospitals receive money from the government each time they help a patient. If a hospital completes a knee operation, it might receive, say, $10,000. If it completes a knee operation on another patient, it receives another $10,000. 

This model incentivizes hospitals to help more patients – to help more patients with knee operations, cataract surgery, etc. This approach also incentivizes hospitals to spend money on expenses that help patients (e.g. more doctors, nurses, equipment, etc.) rather than using the money on expenses that don’t help patients (e.g. more admin staff). 

To learn more about this policy option, please watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see this post by MEI.