Joint Effort Cuts Pediatric Surgery Wait Times

The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and Ontario Health co-led the development of the Surgical and Endoscopy Community Partnerships Program, an innovative program designed to help improve access and reduce wait times for pediatric surgical and endoscopy procedures.

Connecting More Patients to Surgeries Sooner

More than 1,500 endoscopy and surgical procedures have been completed at community hospitals. Between 2024 to 2025, 727 pediatric cases shifted to community partners.

Collaborating Across the Greater Toronto Area

Launched in November 2023, the Surgical and Endoscopy Community Partnerships Program brings together SickKids and six community hospitals across the Greater Toronto Area in a collaborative model. This shift away from siloed institutional solutions to a regionally coordinated and cooperative approach has achieved measurable improvements across several pediatric surgical areas.

Eligible SickKids patients can now have their surgeries performed sooner at a community hospital – by either local surgeons or those from SickKids – rather than waiting for an available slot at SickKids. The focus is on low complexity surgeries that can be completed safely in the community, focusing on urology, ophthalmology, plastics, orthopedics and dentistry procedures.

A Team Effort

The success of this program is a result of partners coming together to optimize surgical resources – such as health human resources and physical capacity – and to distribute efforts across the entire region. Shared education support, a community of practice and in‑person observerships, which provide opportunities for medical staff to shadow senior colleagues and learn through direct observation, were all key program elements that increased participating health care teams’ competence and confidence in completing additional pediatric surgeries.

Ontario Health has been a leading partner in this initiative, acting as a coordinating body and providing ongoing strategic guidance.

Patient and family experience survey results have reinforced the program’s positive impact. Beyond providing surgery to patients on the SickKids wait list sooner, this partnership has enhanced care pathways by redirecting new referrals to partner sites and helping build long-term system sustainability.

The Surgical and Endoscopy Community Partnerships Program demonstrates how collaborative efforts can help ensure that children and youth have timely access to the right care and services, close to home. This program serves as a successful partnership model that will be adopted by other regions across the province.