Health

I'll search for current data on health care access in Quebec, including waiting lists, family doctor availability, and emergency room situations.

Current Health Care Access Situation in Quebec

People Without a Family Doctor

In October 2025, the Quebec government confirmed that 1.5 million Quebecers still had no access to a family doctor.¹

This represents a significant deterioration:

In 2019, 82% of the population had a regular doctor, but by 2024 this proportion had fallen to 72%—a drop of 10 points in five years.¹

Access to primary care in Quebec is among some of the worst in the country, with 31% lacking a family doctor and 29% reporting difficult access to one.²

Quebec leads the way in the proportion of the population who have been looking for more than a year for a family doctor (18%).²

Waiting Lists for a Family Doctor

Provincewide, the average GAMF wait was about 15 months (as of late 2025), and up to 20 months for people not flagged as a priority case.³

However, this varies significantly by region:

In Montreal and Quebec City the wait is often 1 to 3 years; in some rural regions, it can exceed 4 years.⁴

The Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec estimates the deficit at around 2,000 family doctors to meet the population's current needs.¹

Emergency Room Wait Times

The average wait time for patients in Quebec's emergency rooms last year was five hours and 12 minutes.⁵

The average wait time in Quebec emergency rooms has increased by 41 minutes since 2018, from 4 hours and 31 minutes in 2018 to 5 hours and 12 minutes last year.⁶

ER wait times differ from region to region, with Laval, the Laurentians, the Montérégie and Montreal having the longest lengths of stay, with median wait times between six and eight hours in these areas.⁵

Currently, there is an average occupancy of 79% across 120 Quebec emergency rooms, with 38 over capacity.⁷

A lack of personnel are causing the high wait times.⁵

Lack of access to primary care and treatment for minor emergencies is contributing to long wait times, pushing patients to fall back on the ER and overwhelming it with cases that could be treated elsewhere.⁶