Move More Procedures Out Of Hospital And Into The Community: Ontario's Doctors

July 22, 2011

Yesterday, the President of the Ontario Medical Association, Dr. Stewart Kennedy, said the province would save money, improve access to services, and lighten the load on overburdened hospitals if more diagnostic and surgical procedures were moved out of the hospital and into specialized clinics.

Dr. Kennedy was at the world renowned Kensington Eye Institute in Toronto, which performs cataract surgeries that are paid for by OHIP, and highlighted it as an example of a successful clinic that is performing thousands of surgeries safely every year and has reduced wait times for patients. Dr. Kennedy called on all parties to duplicate the success of Kensington and allow more diagnostic and surgical procedures to be performed outside of hospitals. Currently in Ontario there are a number of procedures performed safely outside of a hospital setting, such as X-rays; MRI’s; ultrasounds; plastic surgery; dermatology and endoscopy.

Earlier this year, Ontario’s doctors released their policy platform, “Better care. Healthier patients. A stronger Ontario.” in advance of the next election. Implementing policy changes that would allow more procedures to occur outside of hospitals was a key plank. In addition, the OMA’s platform also called for funding to reduce the number of Alternate Level of Care patients by increasing long-term care capacity and home support services; and increasing the number of acute care beds.

Quotes

“Hospitals are operating at their peak when they are at 85-90 per cent capacity and right now there are a number operating at well over 100 per cent. Performing more outpatient services outside of the hospital setting would help reduce the number of procedures that can be cancelled or delayed due to more urgent cases and allow hospitals to treat and care for patients with more urgent and serious health problems.”
Stewart Kennedy, MD
President, Ontario Medical Association

“We can’t let the over politicized language of ‘private health care’ hijack the important discussion we must have about expanding access to publicly funded services and addressing the fiscal and infrastructure challenges that our health care system is facing.”
Stewart Kennedy, MD
President, Ontario Medical Association

“We believe patients should be treated in the most appropriate setting commensurate with their needs. Out-of-hospital ambulatory facilities are the best solution for many surgeries and other procedures, including cataracts and colonoscopies, which can be provided with exceptional quality and are much more cost-effective than a hospital setting. Since inception in 2006, KEI has done 40,000+ cataracts with great patient satisfaction in an environment much more patient-centred and focused and with much less likelihood of infection.”
Brian McFarlane,
President & CEO, Kensington Eye Institute

Quick Facts

According to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care website, wait times for cataract surgeries have decreased by 63% since 2005. Ontario’s doctors have performed more than 975,000 cataract surgeries.
If Kensington Eye Institute were to close, every hospital in Ontario regardless of size or location would have to perform 47 cataract surgeries every year.

 Kensington received $5 million in funding to perform 6,700 cataract surgeries in 2006.
By 2008, the number of surgeries had increased to 7,200, while still using the same funding amount that was originally invested.