A patient at his hospital room in Japan. Photo by SunMedia files

“A year!” exclaimed Dr. Yoshifumi Ikeda, medical director of a university hospital in Tokyo after we described the surgical wait times Canadian patients often face. The doctor was so shocked he switched from Japanese to English.

Our think tank was in Japan to produce a documentary on how that country’s universal health system has virtually no wait times. Yes, the country that voted instant noodles the best invention of the 20th century also has (almost) instant health care.

Need a hip operation? Pull out your calendar … how does next Friday sound? What about the week after? No one is dying in Japan after waiting months for heart surgery and no one has to wait years for joint surgery.

In 2020, the OECD studied wait

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