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Reading Madonna Gallo’s piece today in the Toronto Star (Wait time for women’s health issues are unacceptable) on surgical wait times for women’s health issues in Ontario was both deeply moving and uncomfortably familiar. The stories she shares—of women waiting months, sometimes years, for vital surgeries—are not abstract statistics. They are the lived realities of our sisters, mothers, wives, colleagues, and friends. They are the faces behind every spreadsheet and performance report.
These delays are not merely inconvenient; they impact physical health, mental well-being, employment, and family life. Gallo’s article rightfully calls for urgent, “out-of-the-box” thinking to alleviate the strain on hospital surgical centres, echoing the frustration and pain felt by thousands of women waiting for gynecological and other essential procedures. As a professional working at the intersection of healthcare innovation and operational transformation, I recognize the merit—and necessity—of creative approaches. But I also see the risks of ignoring persistent, fixable inefficiencies right under our noses.
Innovation often conjures images of brand-new clinics, AI-powered triage, and community-based solutions. But there is another, less glamorous frontier—one hiding in plain sight within our hospital surgical departments. Across Ontario, many surgical centres operate at only 65-75% utilization, even as waitlists grow longer. This underutilization isn’t due to a lack of demand; rather, it reflects a systemic challenge in how we plan, schedule, and manage surgical flow.
Why do we leave precious hours of operating room time unfilled, especially when the stakes for patients are so high? Why, despite dedicated teams and fully staffed resources, do we see such a gap between capacity and actual throughput? The answers are complex and rooted in operational realities: unpredictable case durations, variable patient flow, late cancellations, and the domino effect of downstream bed shortages.
While it is tempting to search for silver bullets outside the traditional system, we must also confront and resolve inefficiencies inside it. Real, sustainable progress will come from a balanced approach that combines within-the-box optimization with out-of-the-box innovation. This means using data-driven tools to maximize the productivity of existing surgical centres, while also piloting new delivery models—like ambulatory surgical centres and single-entry referral pathways—that have shown promise in other provinces and countries.
In my work, I see every day how targeted digital tools—such as predictive analytics and AI-powered scheduling—can help surgical teams anticipate variation, smooth out bottlenecks, and reliably use more of the time and talent already available. By squeezing more value from every staffed hour, we can reduce wait times, boost staff morale, and use public resources more responsibly. This is not just about efficiency for its own sake; it’s about making good on our commitment to timely, equitable care for women and all Ontarians.
To truly address surgical wait times for women, we need to start by naming the problem: our current approach to planning and utilization isn’t working as well as it could. Let’s have the courage to examine the status quo—honestly, with data in hand—and build.
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