The group that advocates for Ontario's physicians proposed on Wednesday to move simple and non-emergency surgeries to specially-designed surgical centres, which mostly operate for-profit right now.

Moving more surgeries and procedures to independent health facilities would help chip away at the province's backlog of medical services, which is expected to take years to work through.

The Ontario Medical Association (OMA), the doctors' group, has suggested creating a new "model" of care, based on using these facilities as integrated ambulatory centres.

Its proposal is laid out in a 59-page report.

The report says many more of the province's almost 1,000 independent health facilities should be licensed to perform publicly funded surgeries and procedures.

Surgeries and procedures done in these facilities can be completed 20 to 30 per cent more efficiently than in hospitals, according to the OMA's analysis of the system at the Kensington Eye Institute, an independent health facility that works with Toronto hospitals to provide more timely surgeries, as well as similar systems in other countries and provinces, including Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

"Integrated ambulatory centres would enhance efficiency, improve quality oversight, address funding issues and ensure equitable access through public financing," the OMA says.

Surgeries like hip and knee replacements, endoscopies and procedures to the ears, nose and throat are examples of those which could be completed at independent health facilities that are folded into an integrated ambulatory centre system, Dr. Adam Kassam, the OMA's president said Wednesday.

Procedures like these put disproportionate pressure on hospitals because patients occupy a bed which would better serve someone in need of more serious or resource-dependent procedures, Kassam explained.

"Taking less complex procedures out of hospitals means hospitals can focus on urgent care and people who are sicker," Kassam said.

Ontario was up against a backlog in medical services before the pandemic. Since COVID-19 emerged, the provincial government has halted non-urgent procedures, including some surgeries, three times.

The province's Financial Accountability Office estimated three million surgeries and procedures would be added to provincial wait lists by the end of September 2021 because of pandemic shutdowns — which was before the most recent stoppage.

There were one million fewer surgeries performed in Ontario from the start of the pandemic until December 2021 versus a comparable period before it, the OMA's report says.

"Integrated ambulatory centres would offer a broad range of non-complex surgeries and procedures that can be done safely and efficiently on an outpatient basis," Kassam said.

Doctors’ group wants funding to move surgeries to private centres

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