Private Surgery in Canada,
Without the Wait.

Yes. The rule follows the patient's home province: you generally cannot pay privately, inside your own province, for a service your province insures, but you can travel to another province and pay there. Every province writes that rule about its own residents and its own plan, and you remain free to travel within your own country for care. Our guide to whether private surgery is legal in Canada sets out what each province says in its own words.

Yes, in Quebec. Ontario law does not allow private payment for insured services inside Ontario, so Ontario patients have their surgery in Montreal, at Westmount Square Surgical Centre or CMC Montreal. A short trip for surgery does not affect your OHIP coverage, and Ontario surgeons on the ACCESS roster also operate at the Montreal centres, so you can still see an Ontario surgeon. The Ontario section of our legal guide explains the detail.

You keep your home province's coverage for everything it insures, and you travel for the surgery itself. Patients from Ontario go to Montreal. Patients from every other province and territory can choose Panacea Clinic in Waterdown, Ontario, or one of the Montreal centres. Your coordinator arranges the video consultation, the surgery date, your travel and accommodation, and follow-up care back home, and keeps your home care team informed throughout.

A Royal College certified surgeon (FRCSC) with fellowship training in the sub-specialty your procedure belongs to, so the operation you need is the core of their practice rather than an occasional part of it. We match you to the surgeon based on your condition and your imaging, and you meet them by secure video before anything is booked. If the surgeon advises against surgery, you will hear that too.

ACCESS works with three private surgical centres: Panacea Clinic in Waterdown, Ontario, and Westmount Square Surgical Centre and CMC Montreal in Montreal, Quebec. Every centre is licensed in its province and independently accredited, and ACCESS verifies those credentials before any patient is booked. CMC Montreal also has an inpatient unit for patients who benefit from an overnight stay. See our private surgical centres.

Your surgery is performed by a Royal College certified, fellowship-trained surgeon in an accredited private facility that meets its province's surgical facility standards, with a physician anesthesiologist and an experienced surgical nursing team present for every procedure. Every operation carries some risk, wherever it happens, and your surgeon will go through the specific risks of yours at your consultation.

There is no single price, because no two cases are the same. Cost is shaped by the procedure, the surgical approach, any implant or hardware used, the facility and the complexity of your case. Rather than post a range that may have nothing to do with your situation, ACCESS reviews your imaging and history and gives you one written, all-inclusive quote covering the surgeon, anesthesia, the facility and our coordination. Nothing is booked until you have that number and you are comfortable with it.

Not as a deduction, but many of the costs can count toward the medical expense tax credit, federally and in your province, which reduces the tax you owe. Our guide to private surgery and the medical expense tax credit explains what counts, including travel, and which receipts to ask for before you leave.

No. You can contact us directly, share whatever imaging and reports you already have, and we will arrange your consultation with the right sub-specialist. If you are still waiting on an MRI or a specialist appointment, say so, because that is frequently the bottleneck we can move first.

Consultations are often available within days, and surgery is frequently scheduled within two to four weeks of that consultation, compared with a median public wait of 49 weeks for orthopedic treatment (orthopedic surgery wait times by province). Your exact timeline depends on the procedure, your medical readiness and surgeon availability. For a small number of procedures, moving fast is not in your interest, and we will say so.