Ontario Reducing Wait Times for Publicly Funded Surgeries and Diagnostics

 TORONTO — Today, the Ontario government introduced the Your Health Act, 2023, 

which outlines the province's next steps in its plan to reduce wait times for surgeries, procedures, and diagnostic imaging, and enables its new "As of Right" rules to automatically recognise the credentials of health care professionals registered in other provinces and territories.

"With the Your Health Act, Ontario is breaking with a status quo that has hampered innovation and made it difficult to adapt to growing challenges and changing demands," said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.

 "Instead, our administration demonstrates audacity, innovation, and originality. We are making it simpler and quicker for individuals to access convenient care closer to home, including and especially the procedures they require to maintain a high quality of life."

If passed, the Your Health Act, 2023 will, based on feedback from frontline partners, strengthen safeguards to integrate community surgical and diagnostic centres into the health system, 

improve quality standards and oversight, and protect the stability of physicians, nurses, and other health-care workers in public hospitals and other health-care settings. 

In accordance with the Canadian Health Act, the proposal, if passed, will also make it mandatory for consumers to receive insured services at community surgical and diagnostic clinics using their OHIP card and never their credit card.

Integration with Hospitals and Other Health-care Settings to Reduce Wait Times

If enacted, the Your Health Act, 2023 will require applicants to describe how the new community surgical and diagnostic centre will promote connected and convenient care, 

including its capacity to reduce patient wait times and enhance patient experiences, as well as its integration plans with the health system. 

If the legislation is enacted, centres will also be required to submit a description of their current ties with health system partners, as well as how they will preserve and enhance those linkages to ensure optimal patient care pathways.

Health Ontario will also ensure that these facilities are incorporated into regional health system planning, including linkage and reporting to the province's wait times information system and involvement in regional central intakes, if available.

 Community surgical and diagnostic centres will also work with local public hospitals to accept referred patients, ensuring that people receive urgently need surgery.

Quality and Oversight

When the province extends the sorts of operations and treatments performed in the community to include hips, knees, and orthopaedics, it will ensure that the new community surgical and diagnostic centres adhere to the highest quality standards and are subject to stringent supervision. 

If the Your Health Act of 2023 is passed, the province will be able to appoint one or more expert organisations as centres' inspecting bodies. 

Prior to the expansion of hips, knees, and orthopaedics to community surgical and diagnostic centres, these expert organisations will collaborate with Ontario Health and the Ministry of Health to establish, maintain, and publish quality and safety standards, as well as schedules for regular centre inspections. 

The province is collaborating with its frontline partners to decide which organisations are best suited to act as inspecting bodies and is examining a number of possibilities, including retaining the regulatory colleges' function in order to assure the continuity of existing quality assurance programmes. 

By identifying inspecting bodies, the government will ensure the flexibility to appoint new or alternative inspecting bodies in the future to facilitate system change as necessary.

If enacted, the Your Health Act of 2023 will also require centres asking for a licence to disclose information on their quality assurance and continuous quality improvement programmes, 

as well as their infection prevention and control strategies. This information will be compared to the quality criteria established by the specialised organisations designated as inspection bodies.

If the Your Health Act of 2023 is enacted, every community surgical and diagnostic centre would be required to establish a method for accepting and responding to patient complaints if an individual believes they did not receive the highest quality of care. 

This procedure will involve the documentation of all complaints and the center's prompt response and action. 

If patients' issues cannot be resolved at the centre, they will be able to seek assistance from the patient ombudsman.

If implemented, the Your Health Act of 2023 will also place community surgical and diagnostic centres under the supervision of Ontario's patient advocate. 

In addition, the province expects the patient ombudsman to report on any patient complaints and will alter quality and supervision controls as necessary to address these issues.

Protecting Stability of Doctors, Nurses and Other Health-care Workers

Many components of a prospective centre's application will be required, if the legislation is implemented, to ensure the stability of doctors, nurses, and other health-care employees in public hospitals and other health-care settings. 

Given specific concerns regarding the global availability of these professionals, this includes the obligation to submit a detailed staffing strategy, including evidence of its sustainability and the specific methodology for staffing anaesthesia delivery.

Before any licence is awarded, the centres will be asked to submit a description of how they worked with health system partners, including public hospitals, in the formulation of their applications, including any endorsements.

If enacted, the Your Health Act of 2023 will mandate that physicians employed by community surgical and diagnostic clinics also have hospital credentials to perform the same duties. 

This will ensure that everyone seeking emergency care at a hospital will have access to the necessary services.

If enacted, the Act will also permit Ontario Health and the Minister of Health to require centres to report on their compliance with these safeguards for the health care workers.

Paying with Your OHIP Card, Not Your Credit Card

According with the Canada Health Act, the Your Health Act, 2023, if enacted, will require that all insured treatments be paid for with an OHIP card and never a credit card.

If enacted, no facility will be permitted to refuse service to a patient because they chose not to purchase upgrades, such as a cataract lens update, and no one will be able to pay extra to receive services faster than others. 

The Your Health Act of 2023, if passed, will also compel centres to offer this information in a transparent manner and ensure there is a process to address people's concerns.

First-in-Canada “As of Right” Rules and Stronger Data Protections

If passed, the Your Health Act, 2023 will enable the recently announced "As of Right" rules, 

Which permit health care workers registered in other provinces and territories to immediately begin working and caring for people in Ontario without first registering with one of Ontario's health regulatory colleges. 

These modifications will help Ontario's health care professionals overcome bureaucratic bottlenecks that have made it impossible for them to practise.

If passed, the law will also bolster security for personal health information and data as the province implements new models to better drive policy and programme planning in order to improve services. 

By integrating data and bolstering privacy protection, openness, and accountability for businesses that gather and utilise data, these modifications will contribute to the development of the health care system.

Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care will put Ontarians back in control of their health by making it easier and more convenient to navigate care at every stage of life, 

providing more ways to receive care closer to home, and ensuring that people can get the care they need faster, when it can have the greatest impact on their health.