Islanders are waiting longer for hip, knee replacements than other Canadians, study says

Islanders are waiting longer for hip, knee replacements than other Canadians, study says

More patients will get surgeries on time as backlogs clear, Health P.E.I. says

Patients in P.E.I. faced longer wait times for hip and knee replacements compared to patients in any other province last year, according to a study from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

The report shows priority health-care wait times are recovering across Canada, but P.E.I. patients are still facing prolonged delays.

"The pattern in P.E.I. is different from other provinces," said Sean Chen, the institute's manager of health system analytics.

Most provinces saw fewer patients receiving hip and knee replacements within the recommended six-month timeline during the COVID-19 pandemic, but have started catching up over the past two to three years, Chen said.

But P.E.I. hasn't bounced back in the same way, he said.

When it comes to hip replacements, 30 per cent of P.E.I. patients received theirs within six months, while the national average is 69 per cent.

"The gap was even larger for knee replacements," Chen said, noting that 12 per cent of P.E.I. patients got a knee replacement within six months, compared to the national average of 63 per cent.

Wait times begin when a physician and patient agree to have surgery, and stop when the patient receives the surgery, said Chen.

He noted that wait times are driven by several everyday pressures, including a growing and aging population, patients with more complex medical needs, and ongoing shortages of doctors and nurses.

The volume of knee surgeries in the province jumped by 22 per cent and hip surgeries rose by eight per cent between April 2025 and March 2026, according to a written statement from Health P.E.I.

In its statement, Health P.E.I. said that as it tackles the backlog by performing more surgeries, it expects more patients to get their operations on time. The health authority also plans to set up a single, central waitlist to make it easier for patients to get care.

Chen noted that P.E.I. did manage to perform more hip and knee surgeries between 2019 and 2025.

While that is a good sign, he said it might not immediately fix the province's official success rate. He said clearing out the backlog of people who have already been waiting for more than six months takes time, and doesn't instantly translate to better-looking statistical report cards.

Gwyneth Egan is a reporter with CBC Prince Edward Island. She has a master's degree in journalism from Carleton University. You can reach her at gwyneth.egan1@cbc.ca