A recent survey conducted by Doctors of BC and Consultant Specialists of BC, with support from BC Family Doctors, shows that specialist waitlists increased by 10% in just one year – reaching unprecedented levels and driving British Columbians to emergency departments and primary care for worsening conditions.

As waitlists continue to grow, nearly 5% of Specialists have already fully closed their practice to new referrals. In addition, 36% of specialists who responded to the survey indicated they have either partially closed their practice to new referrals or are considering doing so in the next year.

The survey found that 80% of specialists believe patients do not have the access they need to specialist care, and that BC lacks an adequate number of specialists to meet the population’s health demands. Similarly, 80% of family physician participants believe the health care system has worsened in effectively providing patients with access to specialists, and nearly 90% have found it difficult for their patients to access specialist care over the past year. In several specialties, including cardiology, neurology, and orthopedics, wait times exceed 12 months.

“Lengthy wait times to see a specialist in BC are contributing to declining patient health and increasing pressure on already overburdened areas of our health care system, such as emergency and primary care,” said Dr Adam Thompson, President of Doctors of BC. “While the Physician Main Agreement will help improve physician retention and recruitment, we are committed to collaborating with government to improve the system itself. A provincial waitlist management program would enhance patient access to specialist expertise, generate data on wait times, and ensure that specialists can dedicate time to triaging referrals.”

Additional primary care appointments, testing, and hospitalizations for patients waiting for specialist care add financial strain to BC’s health care system, with the Canadian Institute for Health Information pegging the average cost of a hospital stay in BC at $8,321 and care costs rising exponentially with delayed access to specialists.

Recommendations from Doctors of BC, Consultant Specialists of BC, and BC Family Doctors include collaborating with the Ministry of Health on:

  • Implementing the Specialist Waitlist Management Proposal to improve efficiency and optimize resource allocation.
  • Providing specialist doctors with new tools to provide earlier support to family physicians and their patients, and to improve the efficiency of the referral-consultation process.
  • Significantly increasing residency spaces and expanding specialist training programs.
  • Supporting specialist team-based care in their clinics to increase capacity and enhance patient access.

“Specialists provide complex care for some of the most vulnerable patients in our health care system, and the lack of data-driven decision making and simple tools for specialists to improve the efficiency of the consultation-referral process is resulting in spiralling waitlist sizes, rapidly growing wait-times for patients, and exponentially increasing costs of care due to delayed access to specialists. Continuing with the status quo is not an option,” said Dr Robert Carruthers, President of Consultant Specialists of BC.  

“When patients have to wait extended periods of time to see a specialist, not only does it often worsen their medical condition, which in turn costs the health care system more time and money, it also forces their primary care providers to try and fill in the gap while the patient is waiting,” said Dr Darren Joneson, President of BC Family Doctors. “This leads to increased visits to their primary care physicians and longer wait times to access primary care.”

The survey results provide a roadmap of where collaborative efforts between the government and physician groups need to be directed to ensure that British Columbians can access the specialist care they urgently need and deserve. An overview of the survey results is available in our 2025 Specialist waitlist survey results one-pager.