Mashhad; Iran's most popular religious and medical tourist destination

A large draw to medical travel is convenience and speed. Countries that operate public health-care systems often have long wait times for certain operations, for example, an estimated 782,936 Canadian patients spent an average waiting time of 9.4 weeks on medical waiting lists in 2005.Canada has also set waiting time benchmarks for non-urgent medical procedures, including a 26-week waiting period for a hip replacement and a 16-week wait for cataract surgery.