Reducing Ontario health care waits: Six solutions avoiding privatization pitfalls

Posted on January 9, 2026 in Health Delivery System

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TheStar.com – Opinions/Contributors
Jan. 9, 2026.   By Iris Gorfinkel, Contributor

With a new year comes the promise of doing better. Canada has long been among the worst performers on specialist wait times in high income countries.

Even patients lucky enough to have a family doctor wait months to see a specialist and then again for surgery. Patients languish on stretchers in hallways as ER closures delay care. Every dollar Ontario shifts to private medicine is a dollar not spent on public health-care.

Here are six proven strategies to cut waits:

Why is my mom stuck overnight on a stretcher in the ER?

Ontario has among the fewest staffed acute-care beds per capita of any province. Nearly one-in-six is occupied by patients waiting for rehab, home-care and long-term care placement — turning Ontario’s most expensive health-care real estate into a parking lot. Prioritizing these services would free hospital beds so patients could move out of ERs faster. Patients would recover faster and suffer less.

Why do operating rooms close by 4 p.m. while patients are stuck on wait-lists?

Operating rooms are underfunded, underused and understaffed. Most sit idle on weekends and evenings as Ontarians wait months suffering from treatable conditions. But instead of extending OR hours in public hospitals, Ontario is funding private clinics to build new operating rooms. A provincial commitment to fully use existing ORs would quickly shorten waits for hip and knee replacements, cataracts and cancer surgeries. Refusing to extend public OR hours puts lives on hold as conditions worsen. If Ontario can find billions to build private clinics, it can afford to run its own ORs past 4 p.m.

I don’t have a family doctor. What happens if I get sick?

It’s too simple to say that Ontario “lacks GPs.” The reality is that many family physicians have shifted away from comprehensive, “cradle‑to‑grave” care. British Columbia’s model brought 1,001 new family doctors back to full-service practice, connecting nearly 250,000 residents to a family doctor — all within two years.

Scaled to Ontario’s population, a similar model could return about 4,300 already-licensed family doctors back to comprehensive care and connect 1.1 million Ontarians to a family doctor. Instead, Ontario is pouring $2.1 billion into health teams that cannot function without the family doctors needed to staff them.

Will I get worse while waiting to see a specialist?

When specialist wait times are longer, patients suffer more and some die sooner. But wait times hinge on the specific specialist a GP chooses — often a random guess of who’s available. When waits are excessive, the guessing game starts over while patients get sicker and care is delayed. Single‑entry models put referrals into a single queue so patients get assigned to the first available specialist. This reduces wait times and prioritizes patients.

“Why can’t I see my own health records when they’re about me?”

You can, but not without filling out forms, paying fees and waiting. You’ve had the legal right to your medical records for over three decades, but barriers abound. Open access should be the new default so patients can view their notes, lab results, medications and allergies. This would let patients correct errors, feel more in control of their chronic illnesses, and help build trust with their clinicians.

Smart systems are two-way streets: They flag overdue vaccines and tests and make booking appointments easy. This improves preventive care and boosts vaccination rates, putting limited appointment slots to wiser use.

“Can’t you see what vaccines I’ve had before an outbreak spreads?”

Ontario’s vaccine records are scattered across public health units, pharmacies and clinics. A robust registry would allow public health to identify pockets of low vaccine coverage to prevent a handful of cases from becoming an outbreak. A vaccine registry isn’t a luxury — it’s essential public-health artillery.

Four of these six fixes leverage technology Ontario already owns. Each would reduce misery, lower wait times and save lives. Refusing to act isn’t caution — it’s complicity. Wait times aren’t a matter of shortage, they’re a policy choice.

Iris Gorfinkel is a family physician and clinical researcher in Toronto.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/reducing-ontario-health-care-waits-six-solutions-avoiding-privatization-pitfalls/article_9db9be78-d44b-4bfe-8809-637452c5d0b9.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a06&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=0C810E7AE4E7C3CEB3816076F6F9881B&utm_campaign=top_28527

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