That’s because ERs are the only way poor people see doctors in the US. Since we can’t go see a GP without insurance and a copay, we wait for the stomach pain that could have been treated to turn into sepsis from a gaping ulcer and then crowd into the ER.

I waited from 6pm to 8am when my doctor's office opened, and then talked to them to determine if I needed to be there (yes, I should have been seen/treated, but now they could see me in the office).

Only one patient was taking from the waiting room in that time.

The US health care system is baaaad.

And almost any specialist is months for a first visit, even for issues that that are life threatening.

i waited that long in public subsidized healthcare, i think they forgot me one time, when they put me in a room, i dint see anyone for like 4 hours because they forgot.

Canada also has the lowest number of doctors per 10k, and the lowest wait for primary care.

That's assuming you even have primary care. There's a desperate shortage of family doctors in Ontario.

Maybe you don't need an appointment to see a GP in Canada? I'm from Austria and GPs are walk-in for most things here, maybe they're the same. But yeah, the graph is pretty useless without explaining what kind of appointments and what kind of surgeries.

To your last point: it could be, eg, your orthopedist (who isn't a surgeon) referring you to an orthopedic surgeon, no GP required in that case. But that just makes it even more complicated, because in some countries, you need a GP referral to any specialist. I think sometimes even every time you see the specialist.

What is misleading about it, it's just numbers? It basically says.. My knee hurts, let me go get it checked out: wait time column A. Physician says I need a knee replacement, wait time column B.

The chart isn't claiming anything. It doesn't say what is better or worse, just the wait times.

Meh, it is from Australia, so unless they have reason to make Canada look bad, it's just numbers

right? like what is that… i consider a wait of more than a couple of days to be too long and just go to a random walk-in clinic… in a month most problems are gone already on their own or have gotten way out of control

Yeah, could be