The Ontario government is moving to significantly expand orthopedic surgical capacity across the province with a new $125-million investment aimed at reducing wait times and increasing access to hip and knee replacements. The funding, announced Monday, will support up to 20,000 additional publicly funded orthopedic procedures over the next two years and introduce four newly licensed community surgical and diagnostic centres dedicated to orthopedic care.
Speaking at the OV Surgical Centre in Toronto, one of the sites selected to begin offering these services, Deputy Premier and Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the investment is intended to accelerate access to high-demand surgeries while maintaining Ontario’s position as a national leader in wait-time performance.
“Our government is leading the country with continued investments that have resulted in the shortest surgical wait times of any province, as we continue taking bold action to help more Ontarians live fuller, more active lives,” Jones said. “By expanding orthopedic surgery capacity across Ontario, we are redoubling our efforts to reduce wait times and get more people access to life-changing procedures sooner, helping them regain mobility, reduce pain and return to the activities they love.”
The province will issue the four new licences beginning in early 2026, enabling the centres to perform hip and knee replacement surgeries, two of the most in-demand procedures in Ontario. The expansion is expected to push the percentage of patients receiving orthopedic care within clinically recommended timelines from the current 80 per cent to 90 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health.
In addition to the OV Surgical Centre, new licences will go to the Academic Orthopedic Surgical Associates of Ottawa (AOAO), the Windsor Orthopedic Surgical Centre, and the Schroeder Ambulatory Centre. Each will operate as part of Ontario’s network of community surgical and diagnostic centres — facilities that have been providing publicly funded procedures for more than three decades.
The announcement builds on a series of high-profile health-care investments rolled out over the past two years. These include $155 million to expand 57 community diagnostic and surgical centres, adding more than 1.2 million MRI, CT, and endoscopy appointments, and $235 million to grow Ontario’s primary-care network through the creation or expansion of over 130 primary-care teams serving an additional 300,000 patients.
The government says expanding community-based surgical capacity is central to its strategy to improve patient access while easing pressure on hospitals. Under the model, procedures such as hip and knee replacements can be performed outside large hospital settings, often with shorter waits and greater flexibility in scheduling. Officials emphasize that the centres are required to remain fully integrated with the broader public health system.
That includes submitting detailed staffing plans to ensure the hiring of nurses and specialists does not destabilize hospital staffing, participating in the province’s wait-time reporting system, and joining regional central intake programs, where applicable, so patients can be routed to the earliest available appointment.
All centres must also meet standards set by Accreditation Canada’s new quality-assurance program, which applies many of the same requirements as public hospitals to ensure patient safety and care quality.
The province’s wider health-care strategy, outlined in Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, continues to emphasize decentralizing some services into community settings to increase capacity and speed up access. Government data shows that Ontario achieved the shortest surgical wait times in Canada in 2024, with 83 per cent of patients receiving procedures within recommended timelines.
Other recent expansions include the addition of 50 MRI machines in 43 hospitals, increased hours for MRI and CT scans at existing community centres, the licensing of four new cataract surgery centres that delivered 40,000 publicly funded eye procedures last year, and the clearing of Ontario’s cervical cancer screening backlog in 2023.
To maintain equitable access, the province reiterates that patients cannot pay to receive insured services more quickly, and centres cannot refuse insured services to those who decline optional, uninsured upgrades.
For the OV Surgical Centre, one of the new orthopedic sites, the licence marks a significant expansion of services.
“We are very pleased to have been selected by the Province of Ontario’s Ministry of Health as a partner with a shared goal to provide greater access to OHIP funded orthopedic diagnostics and surgeries as an Integrated Community Health Services Centre,” said Christopher Wein, CEO of OV Surgical Centre Limited. “We believe that ICHSC facilities such as ours will contribute to the Ministry of Health’s vision to accelerate hip and knee replacement procedures for all Ontario residents in need.”
With demand for orthopedic care continuing to rise alongside Ontario’s aging population, the province says the latest investment is intended to secure long-term surgical capacity and ensure patients have access to faster, more convenient procedures close to home.
