Private DI/surgical centre opens north of Toronto

RICHMOND HILL, Ont. – The six-storey Schroeder Ambulatory Centre (SAC) will soon be in business performing diagnostic imaging exams, and before long, hundreds of employees there may also be performing orthopedic surgeries, further changing the healthcare system in York Region and beyond.

Last week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, in announcing a licence that day for the private but non-profit clinic to perform MRI, CT and gastrointestinal endoscopy services, said the Richmond Hill clinic wants to be a backup for hospitals as far away as Kingston.

“This is basically a hospital,” Ford told Walter and Maria Schroeder, philanthropists who have committed $300 million to the facility.

“What you’ve built here is unbelievable.”

The province will give Schroeder $14 million over two years to perform diagnostic imaging for more than 115,000 patients, part of $155 million to create 57 centres for such imaging across the province.

The Schroeder Ambulatory Centre is licensed to perform MRIs, CT scans and gastrointestinal endoscopy services. It may soon add orthopedic surgeries to that list.

“We’re taking a massive burden off the system and off hospitals,” the premier said.

The centre will be the first such licensed facility.

Ford and health minister Sylvia Jones denied promises were made to the centre while the Schroeder Foundation that funds it was pouring in millions to expand and finish what had been a stalled medical centre project at 9355 Leslie St.

“This facility truly was a leap of faith,” Jones said, describing it as a “gift” to the people of Ontario.

All 57 clinic licences have undergone independent review, she added.

Schroeder Foundation first called its project the Terra Hill Ambulatory Surgical and Medical Centre and envisioned a place that could do thousands of day surgeries a year.

Ford wouldn’t comment on whether the centre, which he said would partner with the Toronto Metropolitan University medical school, would be licensed for surgeries. His press secretary later said the Health Ministry’s “call for orthopedic community and surgical diagnostic centres” had not opened yet.

Source: Yorkregion.com