Ontario calling for more private clinics to handle hip and knee surgeries

Physiotherapist Ellen Newbold, right, and occupational therapist Mary Van Impe help Tim Heenan walk up some steps as he prepares for his release following day surgery for a hip replacement at St.Michael's Hospital, in Toronto on Tuesday, May 23, 2018. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)

The Ontario government says it would like to see up to 20,000 more orthopedic surgeries, such as hip and knee replacements, performed at private community surgical centres around the province over the next two years and is providing $125 million to make it happen.

In a statement, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the move is aimed at delivering “even more connected and convenient care for people, when and where they need it.”

A call for applications to open the new community surgical centres opens today.

“This expansion in services will reduce wait times for orthopedic surgeries, such as hip and knee replacements, ensuring that 90 per cent of Ontario patients receive care within clinically recommended timeframes,” the province said in a news release.

The new surgical centres will be accredited by Accreditation Canada, the same body that establishes quality standards for hospitals, the province said.

The province also pointed out that no centre can refuse an insured service to a patient who chooses not to purchase uninsured “upgrades” and no patient can pay to receive insured services faster than others.

Canadian wait times for key surgeries – including knee and hip replacements – have been sluggish to rebound since the pandemic, according to data released last month by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). The institute cited an ageing population and a shortage of health-care workers as contributing factors to the problem.

Ontario completed 82 per cent of hip replacement surgeries and 79 per cent of knee replacement surgeries within benchmark wait times in 2024, according to data compiled by CIHI.

The province claims its surgical wait times are the shortest in Canada.

Doctors hopeful

Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman, president of the Ontario Medical Association, told CP24 she’s optimistic that the new surgical centres could help reduce wait times.

She said the key point is that OHIP remains the funder of care and there are quality controls being built into the new clinics.

“We’re optimistic about it, and we are also looking at the fact that it’s happening in a staged way, so it’s not that all of a sudden, it’s everywhere,” Abdurrahman said.

She said it’s also important that the rollout is being done slowly so that the effects on the system, staffing in particular, can be measured.

“With such high levels of burnout with health-care workers, especially exacerbated by the pandemic, when we’re looking at creating more capacity in a system to address wait times and backlog, we really have to look at this as alleviating the pressure on health-care workers,” Abdurrahman said.

“We have to implement this with a kind of view of burnout and provider wellness lens as well, because our goal is not to drain one system and then have so much strain now left on that system.”

She said the model is already established for other procedures that used to be done solely in hospitals.

“They still have to maintain the same standards,” Abdurrahman said.

Most of the 900 private community surgical and diagnostic centres already operating around Ontario currently provide imaging services.

The province announced last week that it would spend $155 million over the next two years to create 57 new centres for MRI and CT scans and gastrointestinal endoscopy services.

The call for applications for the new orthopedic centres will run from July 2 to Aug. 27, though questions about the process are only being accepted until July 16. The first new licences are expected to be issued in early 2026.

With files from CTV News and The Canadian Press