Neil and Janet Payne call it “Le Hip Trip.”
A year ago, the Kinkora, P.E.I., couple were facing a wait of about a year for Neil to get a hip replacement.
His right hip had been worn down by osteoarthritis, and a hike on Cape Breton’s Seawall Trail made the pain much worse.
“I stopped working in November when the X-rays came back, and [the doctor] just said your hip is totally gone and you need a replacement,” Neil told This is P.E.I. podcast host Mitch Cormier.
This summer, after waiting nine months, the couple called again and were told Neil would likely have to wait another 12 to 15 months.
“We knew he couldn’t do that,” Janet said.
“Neil’s a really active guy, and to watch him lose probably 25 to 35 pounds as a result of the intense hike, but also because of all this medication that he was on, he just turned into an old man that just couldn’t do anything anymore.”
Instead of waiting, the couple borrowed $25,000 and drove to a private clinic in Montreal.
Their story is one of many that show how long wait times are pushing Canadians to pay out of pocket for care, despite a lifetime of contributing through taxes.
Colin Craig, president of the Regina-based think-tank SecondStreet.org, said the underlying problem is a system that hasn’t changed much in decades.
“We as taxpayers pay so much money into the government each year in the name of health insurance, and they’re not living up to their end of the bargain,” Craig said.
After researching the options, the Paynes settled on Montreal. But they didn’t have the money on hand.
“After all those years and kids, we didn’t have $25,000 just sitting around in the bank waiting for a hip,” Janet said.
They turned to a line of credit, knowing it would delay retirement and add financial strain.
“Maybe that means I’ll just work until I die,” Janet said.
“I would rather make that choice and have some quality of life for Neil and myself and our family than to just accept the fact that we had to wait 15 more months and that he might not have been able to make it.”
Long wait for surgery drives Islander to pay $25K for hip replacement in Quebec
The experience at the private clinic in Montreal, they said, was efficient and personal.
Within about 48 hours of deciding to go, Janet had the logistics set. The clinic co-ordinated X‑rays, blood work and other pre-op tests on P.E.I.
“The care in the clinic was unreal,” Neil said. “You get your own nurse while you’re there and everything.”
Janet paid another $1,500 so Neil could stay overnight after the surgery. He was well enough to travel home the next day.
“It was the first part of the next stage of his life,” she said.
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In a statement to CBC News, Health P.E.I. said it cannot comment on specific patients, but said wait times for hip replacements are improving in some areas.
The median wait was 282 days in the first quarter of 2026-27, compared with 276 days during the same period last year. The 90th percentile wait — patients facing the longest waits — improved from 519 days to 476.
“While wait times remain longer than the [Canadian Institute for Health Information] standards, recent operational changes are helping us increase surgical volumes and improve access for Islanders,” the statement reads.
Eighty-nine hip replacements were completed during the first quarter of 2026-27, up from 81 a year earlier. It said 33.7 per cent of completed cases met the national 182-day benchmark, up from 28.4 per cent.
Craig said there is a misconception that only wealthy Canadians can afford to pay privately when faced with long wait times.
He said polling by SecondStreet.org found about nine per cent of people making less than $60,000 a year had gone to another province or country and paid for treatment because of long waits at home. The figure was about 11 per cent among those making more than $100,000.
“There’s not a big gap between the lower income people and higher income people. It’s people of all incomes now that are doing this,” Craig said.
He said Canada could look to European health systems where governments guarantee treatment within set timelines and may pay when patients have to seek care elsewhere, including at private clinics.
“In these other countries, what they do is they fund services for patients,” he said. “We fund health-care systems, so a lot of our money gets wasted on bureaucracy.”
One possible change, Craig said, would be to have public funding follow the patient rather than being tied to a particular institution.
“Anyone should be allowed to do it, provided that they have qualified staff,” he said.
“It shouldn’t matter if it’s a non-profit clinic or a for-profit or if it’s a government provider. If the patient chooses to get their surgery there, the money should follow the patient.
“They’re going to get treated like customers. The customer service is going to … improve. You’re going to have a little bit of competition, and you’re going to incentivize the system to want to help more patients and spend less money on bureaucracy.”
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The Paynes say they remain strong supporters of publicly funded health care.
“But is there a way to make it more efficient? Can we do more with what we have? Because what’s going on right now is just not acceptable. People are really suffering and dying,” Janet said.
Today, Neil is back hiking and keeping up with his children and grandchildren.
“I’m pretty happy about it,” he said. “If I was still on the waiting list, my next summer could have been screwed too. I could have been limping around until next summer.”
