Trillium In The News

Etobicoke Guardian

Health Minister pledges $26 million to reduce surgical wait times

by March
Province makes investment to clear backlog

December 15, 2004

Ontarians in need of cancer and cataract surgeries and hip or knee replacements, could be among the 5,380 surgeries clearing a backlog by March under a $26 million provincial government wait time reduction announcement.

The latest investment includes $10 million to fund 1,700 additional cancer surgeries, $14.5 million for 1,680 more hip and knee replacements, as well as $1.5 million for 2,000 more cataract surgeries.

“Wait times are the yardstick by which Ontarians measure how well their health care system is performing,” Health Minister George Smitherman said at the announcement yesterday afternoon at Trillium Health Centre’s Surgicentre ambulatory care facility in Etobicoke.

“When people can’t receive the care they need, in the timeframe they need it in, it shakes their confidence in the health care system. Waiting too long has real consequences in the lives of real people.”

Trillium opened its Surgicentre in 2001 as a model ambulatory care facility; performing 30,000 day surgeries a year at one-third less the cost of conducting the same procedures in an acute care hospital. The Surgicentre performs general surgeries, neurosurgeries, plastic surgeries, orthopedic, gynecological, musculoskeletal and ear, nose and throat surgeries.

Yesterday’s announcement is part of a broader $107-million wait-times strategy the government announced last month. That strategy targets wait times in five key health services: the three surgeries, as well as cardiac procedures and MRIs and CT scans.

Across Ontario, 45 hospitals were selected for increased surgical volumes from a pool of applicants. Hospitals were chosen to participate based on their readiness, staff efficiencies and capabilities and financial stability, Smitherman said.

Trillium received $2.5 million to perform the following additional surgeries: 108 hip and knee replacements, 170 cataract surgeries and 110 cancer surgeries.

A comprehensive public registry to monitor, coordinate and report surgical wait times across Ontario will be implemented by the end of December 2006.

Meanwhile, a website that allows Ontarians to report on wait times is expected to come online by month’s end, the minister said.
Cancer is the leading cause of death in Ontario, Smitherman said. This year, an estimated 54,600 Ontarians will be diagnosed with cancer.

“For those of us who’ve been in this field for a long time, this strategy answers many of the questions we’ve asked for years,” said Dr. Alan Hudson, the provincial government’s advisor on the Ontario wait time strategy.

“We’re now going to see dollars following patients, and tying quality and accountability to dollars. We’ve all been asking for this for a long time. It’s very exciting.”

Feedback on these reduced wait times next year will provide “benchmarks” to inform the broader strategy, Hudson said.

Hilary Short, president of the Ontario Hospital Association, called the funding “an important first step” necessary in reducing wait times for Ontarians across the province.

“It’s a whole new way of looking at how hospitals are funded,” she said. “We’re very pleased to hear that these three priority areas in reducing wait times are not the only areas, but are first priorities.”

Trillium Health Centre president and CEO Ken White agreed.

“We’re breaking a major log jam in the system, and we’ll all deliver on that log jam.”

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