Canada's Ontario Government has announced an investment of C$155m ($113.47m) over two years to establish 57 new community surgical and diagnostic centres across the province.
As part of Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, this initiative is expected to enhance access to publicly funded procedures for 1.2 million people.
It will accelerate the delivery of MRI and CT scans, as well as gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy services.
Ontario premier Doug Ford said: “It’s all part of our plan to protect and improve our health-care services, all while ensuring people always receive the care they need with their OHIP card.”
Starting this summer, 35 newly licensed centres will begin offering MRI and CT scan services, following a call for applications.
This expansion is set to connect up to 828,000 more individuals to essential diagnostic imaging, surpassing the province's initial target by more than fourfold.
The new centres will play a crucial role in lessening wait times and ensuring that patients receive scans within the recommended time.
For GI endoscopy services, 22 additional licensed centres will be introduced, aiming to perform up to 420,000 procedures over two years.
This marks a threefold increase over the original goal set by the province, and guarantees timely access to GI endoscopy procedures for all patients within Ontario.
The announcement regarding funding was made at the Schroeder Ambulatory Centre in Richmond Hill, which has been allocated C$14m to provide MRI and CT scans, along with GI endoscopy services, to more than 115,000 patients over two years.
The names of the other recipient centres will be disclosed in the following weeks.
New centres are mandated to present detailed staffing strategies to maintain stability at public hospitals, report into the province’s wait times information system, and engage in regional central intakes where available.
In addition, all community surgical and diagnostic centres will fall under the remit of Accreditation Canada’s recently introduced programme for quality assurance.
This initiative enforces the same stringent standards as public hospitals.
