About time. $6250 a surgery. Cheaper than the hospitals.
Ontario to Pay for Hip and Knee Surgeries at Private Clinics
Jennifer Cowan
12/9/2025|Updated: 12/9/2025
The Ontario government will be funding hip and knee replacement surgeries at four private clinics over the next two years, as the province expands the number of private facilities that provide publicly funded health care.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Ontario will provide $125 million beginning next year to add up to 20,000 orthopedic surgeries at community clinics in a bid to reduce wait times.
“This expansion will reduce wait times and support up to 20,000 additional publicly funded orthopedic surgeries, including hip and knee replacements,” Jones said during a Dec. 8 press conference at the OV Surgical Centre in Toronto.
“It aims to ensure that 90 percent of Ontario patients receive orthopedic care within clinically recommended timeframes, driving Ontario well beyond the national average of 65 percent.”
The province has issued licences for the OV Surgical Centre in Toronto, Academic Orthopedic Surgical Associates of Ottawa, Windsor Orthopedic Surgical Centre, and Schroeder Ambulatory Centre in Richmond Hill, which is part of the Greater Toronto Area.
All of the newly established surgical centres will receive accreditation from Accreditation Canada, the same organization responsible for setting quality standards for hospitals, Jones said.
No centre is permitted to deny an insured service to a patient who opts not to acquire uninsured “upgrades,” the province said in a press release. Similarly, no patient will be allowed to pay for expedited access to insured services over others.
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government first introduced sweeping changes to the delivery of health care in 2023, in response to a massive surgical and diagnostic test backlog.
Jones said this week’s orthopedic surgeries announcement will build on the changes already put in place such as the $155 million allocated over two years to add 57 new community surgical and diagnostic centres licensed to deliver MRI and CT scans, and gastrointestinal endoscopy services. The province said it has paid for 40,000 eye surgeries in the last year and tens of thousands of operating hours for MRI and CT scans.
Critics have said the province should instead be putting that money into publicly funded hospitals, which have said they need $1 billion in additional funding.
Liberal health critic Adil Shamji has said he supports the idea under the right circumstances, but added that the province doesn’t have enough guardrails in place to ensure the system will operate safely. |
