LymyVoyage

Wait Times & Access

How long people actually wait for care in their home country and who gets left out: published waiting-list data for specialists, diagnostics and elective surgery, deaths on wait lists, emergency-department crowding, capacity gaps and rural versus urban provision, plus how the statistics themselves are measured (the clock starts at different points in different countries). The push-factor side of medical tourism, distinct from Destinations' pull-factor focus on where patients go.

Closed city hospital with an empty ambulance bay, for rural and urban hospital closures and travel distance
Wait Times & Access

Hospital Closures in the US: City Hospitals Close Too

432 US hospitals closed from 2010 to 2025 and 216 opened; city hospitals closed about as often as rural ones. Extra travel is measured mostly in rural areas.

7 min read
Older man with a walking stick waiting in a Polish hospital corridor, for surgery waiting times in Poland and Europe
Wait Times & Access

Poland's Hip Wait Is 343 Days. Or 69. Both Are Official.

The OECD publishes two different waiting-time measures, and most countries report only one. Which one a country reports can change its number fivefold.

10 min read
Patients waiting on blue chairs in a rainy NHS outpatient waiting room, for NHS waiting times in England
Wait Times & Access

NHS Waiting List Hits 7.33m as 18-Week Progress Stalls

NHS England's July 2026 waiting list reached 7.33 million treatment pathways -- about 6.21 million patients -- with 65.3% treated within 18 weeks, the same share as in March. What the figure counts, and why it cannot be compared across the UK.

12 min read
Older man waiting alone in a snowy Canadian hospital corridor, for patients who died on Canada's medical wait lists
Wait Times & Access

23,746 Canadians Died Waiting for Care in 2024-25

SecondStreet.org's FOI-based count found at least 23,746 patients died on a surgery or scan wait list -- up 3%, and 100,876 since 2018. What it cannot show.

6 min read