The plan invests in community surgical and diagnostic centres, giving them the ability to conduct more procedures.Officials say there are about 206,000 people waiting for surgical procedures in Ontario. The government says this plan will free up doctors and physicians at hospitals to deal with more complicated, high-risk surgeries, as well as increase capacity.
The new partnerships are expected to roll out beginning March 2023. The government says it hopes to clear the pandemic-related backlog in this step of the plan.Ontario will expand “the scope of surgical and diagnostic centres,” including allowing colonoscopy and endoscopy procedures. This should happen sometime this year.
There will be legislation that would “strengthen oversight” at these clinics, although no information has been provided about what this could entail.It’s still a bit unclear. The government has said it is investing $300 million in 2022-23 as part of its “surgical recovery strategy,” as well as the $18 million to cover further surgeries.Health-care unions, as well as other experts, have argued that investments into private clinics could result in further strain on the public health-care system.
As the Medical Director of an IHF (who has 2/5 out-of-hospital OHIP funded MRIs), I’d love to clear up misinformation about this. This is not private healthcare. Studies remain funded by OHIP and you cannot pay out of pocket. The goal is to decant the hospitals.