Canadians wait a median 28.6 weeks from referral to treatment. U.S. veterans wait weeks past the VA’s own standards. We publish the real numbers — sourced, cited, updated — and map the legitimate exits, including one most people never consider: getting treated in Colombia.
Departures
Read the board the way an airport reads one: everything above the green line is a queue you join and hope. The green line is a calendar you control — a named surgeon at a private clinic, booked directly, at typical 2026 private-pay ranges.
The board isn’t rhetoric; every red row carries its source. Canadian figures come from the Fraser Institute’s 2025 physician survey. The VA figure is independent tracking across 21 VA Medical Centers against the VA’s own 20-day standard — and Senate VA Committee monitoring has caught clinics past 100 days for new mental-health patients.
The rest of this page unpacks each row — and exactly how the green one works.
The 30-year drift
In 1993, a Canadian referred by their family doctor waited a median 9.3 weeks for treatment. In 2025 it was 28.6 weeks — and that’s an improvement on 2024’s record 30.0 weeks. The Fraser Institute has measured this every year for three decades; the direction rarely changes.
And the headline number hides the mechanics. The 28.6 weeks is really two queues stacked end to end:
Need an MRI before anyone will refer you? Add up to 18.1 more weeks at the front. Waits stack; they don’t run in parallel.
Who waits longest
The system triages hard. Cancer treatment moves in about a month — proof the capacity to move quickly exists. But orthopaedic surgery sits at 48.6 weeks and neurosurgery at 49.9 weeks: nearly a year of restricted movement, lost work, and escalating painkillers for conditions that are “elective” only in the bureaucratic sense.
Fraser’s physicians report orthopaedic patients wait 13.6 weeks longer than specialists themselves consider clinically reasonable. The queue isn’t just long — by the system’s own doctors’ judgment, it’s too long.
Do the math on your own wait
Fraser’s economists put Canada’s queue at $4.2 billion in lost wages and productivity in a single year. That’s the national number — here’s yours. Your inputs, your arithmetic; nothing is stored or sent.
Three ways in
Province-by-province medians, the specialties that wait longest, diagnostic backlogs, and the honest arithmetic of paying privately abroad.
Canadian wait times →The 20/28-day standards the VA is missing, community care leverage, and the Foreign Medical Program that can pay for service-connected care abroad.
Veterans guide →No queue — just a bill. Compare U.S. cash-pay pricing against typical 2026 Colombia ranges at JCI-accredited hospitals and decide with real numbers.
Request my comparison →For U.S. veterans
The VA’s own access standard says 20 days for primary and mental health care, 28 for specialty care. Independent tracking across 21 VA Medical Centers found new primary-care patients averaging 35.9 days — and Senate VA Committee monitoring found clinics running past 100 days for new mental-health appointments.
Here’s what almost nobody tells you: under 38 CFR § 17.35, the VA’s Foreign Medical Program can pay for treatment of your service-connected conditions outside the United States — any provider, no prior authorization, claims now filed online. Over 6 million service-connected veterans potentially qualify. In FY2019, roughly 5,000 used it.
The exit
The WHO’s 2000 assessment ranked Colombia’s health system #22 in the world — #1 in the Western Hemisphere, ahead of both the U.S. and Canada that year. Today the checks that matter are current: JCI accreditation at the hospital level and ReTHUS registry verification for individual surgeons.
Private-pay patients in Colombia book a named surgeon directly. Consultations typically happen within days and procedures within weeks — not because corners get cut, but because you’re scheduling a clinic, not joining a national waiting list.
This network is operated from Medellín, not a call center. Clinics are visited in person, credentials verified at the source, and patients get a bilingual point of contact in the same time zone. Start at Colombia Medical.
Procedure, country, how long you’ve been in the queue. Two minutes, no documents needed yet.
Typical 2026 price ranges, realistic scheduling, credentials to demand — and for veterans, an FMP fit check.
Speak with the clinic, confirm the surgeon’s ReTHUS registration, and — if FMP applies — request a predetermination via Ask VA.
Booked dates, a bilingual contact in Medellín, and recovery logistics arranged before wheels-up.
Tell us the procedure you’re waiting for and where you’re waiting. We’ll reply with a plain-English rundown: typical 2026 price ranges in Colombia (ranges, never quotes), how scheduling actually works, which credentials to demand, and — for veterans — whether the FMP could apply to your service-connected condition. No pressure, no spam, no invented numbers.
Request my timelineFrom The Waiting Room
Month by month: the referral, the consult, the deterioration — and the moments a queue can still be exited.
VETERANSRegistration, the Ask VA predetermination, direct billing, and documenting a claim so it gets paid the first time.
THE EXITJCI, ReTHUS, and the questions that separate a credentialed hospital from a good website.
Yes. Canadians are free to travel and pay privately for care in another country. Provincial plans generally won’t reimburse elective treatment abroad, so plan on paying out of pocket — which is exactly why verified pricing and credentials matter before you book anything.
For service-connected conditions, the Foreign Medical Program can reimburse care received abroad under 38 CFR § 17.35 — including in Colombia. It does not cover non-service-connected or elective cosmetic care, and FMP can’t issue preauthorizations, so registration and a treatment predetermination screening through Ask VA before you travel are essential. Full guide here.
Canadian figures cite the Fraser Institute’s annual “Waiting Your Turn” survey (2025 edition unless noted). U.S. veteran figures cite VA.gov, 38 CFR, VA access standards, and independent tracking projects — each cited where used. We never publish an uncited statistic, and we never invent clinic names, surgeon names, or testimonials.
No. SurgeryWaitTimes.com is an independent information and referral service. We connect you with vetted, credentialed providers in Colombia and help with logistics — the medicine stays between you and your surgeon. Nothing here is medical, legal, or benefits advice.
One message. One honest answer about your options. And if staying in the queue really is your best move, that’s exactly what we’ll tell you.