Ontario Reducing Wait Times for Surgeries and Procedures

January 16, 2023

When it comes to your health, the status quo is no longer acceptable. The government is taking bold action to eliminate surgical backlogs and reduce wait times for publicly-funded surgeries and procedures.

Ontario has a three-step plan that better integrates and uses community surgical and diagnostic centers and their state-of-the-art facilities to speed up how quickly people are able to get surgeries and procedures using their health card, never their credit card.

The plan will add 14,000 more OHIP-insured cataract surgeries each year, expand community-based clinics to perform more surgeries such as cataracts and MRI and CT imaging and introduce legislation to expand surgeries for hip and knee replacements in community-based clinics by 2024.

By boosting the availability of publicly funded health services in Ontario, this government is ensuring Ontarians currently waiting for specialized surgeries will have greater access to the world class care they need, where they need it.

Community surgical and diagnostic centres have been valuable partners in responding to the pandemic and addressing the pandemic-related backlog in surgeries. Increasing community delivery of surgeries has proven to increase patient and provider satisfaction and reduces the risk of a rescheduled appointment. Surgeries performed at these centres will be publicly-funded.

Timely access to surgery and diagnostic imaging is critical to increasing early detection for diagnoses and improving people’s prognosis and quality of life, in addition to reducing pressure on the health care system in the long-term.

Learn More: https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1002641/ontario-reducing-wait-times-for-surgeries-and-procedures