Ontario has released a new three-step plan that will see some for-profit community surgical and diagnostic centres take on more responsibilities, including additional surgeries and other medical procedures.
Speaking to reporters Monday morning, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said this will help reduce wait times and eliminate surgical backlogs.
“We need to be bold, innovative and creative,” she said. “We need to build on the spirit of collaboration on display across the health-care sector.”
The government said surgical wait lists should return to pre-pandemic levels by March 2023 under this plan.
The first step would be to invest in “new partnerships with community surgical and diagnostic centres” to reduce the waitlist for cataract surgeries, ensuring 14,000 more surgeries will be performed each year.
The government will also invest more than $18 million in existing centres to cover other procedural care such as MRI and CT scans, ophthalmic surgeries, minimally invasive gynecological surgeries and plastic surgeries.
The announcement, which was made jointly by Jones and Premier Doug Ford, comes as health-care experts warn about the possibilities of exacerbated staffing shortages in hospitals.
Experts have questioned why the Ford government would invest further in independent centres instead of providing support to the public sector.
Last week the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario said any expansion of private surgical centres would create challenges for hospitals.
“Many months ago, we were consulted and shared our opinion that stand-alone surgical centers need to be connected to the hospital system to ensure continuity of care and patient safety,” Registrar and CEO Dr. Nancy Whitmore said in a statement.
“We also shared that this wasn’t the solution to the health care crisis and would further tax our health human resources shortages and further increase wait times for more urgent hospital-based care.”
Dr. Michael Warner, a physician at Toronto’s Michael Garron Hospital, said unless the government plans on training a new group of staff, it’s “unclear how this plan will not reduce staffing levels in public hospitals.”
“Where the people going to come without cannibalizing staff for public hospitals,” he asked on Twitter before the announcement.
