The Ultimate Guide to Private Orthopaedic Surgery in Canada: Benefits, Procedures, and How to Get Started in 2025
08 / 10 / 2025
08 / 10 / 2025
As Canada enters 2025, wait times in the public healthcare system remain a significant challenge—particularly for orthopaedic and sports medicine procedures. Delays of six months to over a year for common surgeries like ACL reconstruction, rotator cuff repair, or hip arthroscopy leave thousands of Canadians living with pain, disability, and diminished quality of life.
Private orthopaedic surgery offers a timely and highly personalized solution. From consultation to post-op rehab, private clinics across Canada—such as OV Surgical—are helping patients regain mobility faster by delivering world-class care without public system delays.
Whether you’re recovering from a sports injury, facing chronic joint degeneration, or simply looking to return to your active lifestyle sooner, this comprehensive guide will help you understand the landscape of private orthopaedic surgery in Canada in 2025. We’ll cover key procedures, benefits, cost considerations, and how to get started with out-of-province care options.
Private orthopaedic surgery refers to elective procedures performed outside Canada’s publicly funded health system. While public orthopaedic care is paid through provincial insurance (OHIP, MSP, etc.), it is plagued by long queues and often involves waits of 6-18 months for consultations and surgery. In contrast, private care is patient-funded, paid by third parties, or supported by insurance and delivers:
Private orthopaedic surgeries are fully legal and carefully regulated under each province’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. In Ontario, for instance, top-tier clinics meet CPSO Level 3 Out-of-Hospital Premises (OHP) accreditation – signifying adherence to the highest surgical standards.
In 2025, orthopaedic surgery wait times in Canada can well exceed 6-12 months., beyond what is recommended in clinical guidelines. Private centres dramatically cut this delay, offering same-week assessments and surgery dates within a month.
Why it matters: Timely surgery—particularly for ACL tears, labral injuries, or rotator cuff damage—can preserve muscle mass, prevent joint instability, minimize long-term sequelae following joint injury and optimize long-term function.
Patients benefit from fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeons with advanced sports medicine and arthroscopic expertise. Each case is approached individually, with decisions based on your injury, activity level, age, and goals—not institutional quotas or backlogs.
Live outside Ontario? No problem. Many private orthopaedic clinics provide virtual consults, assist with travel coordination, and streamline pre-op/post-op care. Intra-provincial travel for medical care has never been more efficient or necessary.
Private clinics often lead in adopting innovations like:
Patients report satisfaction rates exceeding 90% for procedures like ACL reconstruction, owing to this focused and specialized approach.
Common among athletes, ACL injuries and meniscal tears are ideally treated via minimally invasive knee arthroscopy. At OV Surgical and other accredited centres, these surgeries are performed as outpatient procedures. This in combination with an accelerated and customized rehabilitation protocol allows for fast recovery and low complications rates.
Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) and labral tears frequently require hip arthroscopy, one of the longest-wait surgeries in the public system. Private surgery can restore hip mechanics and mobility long before damage worsens.
Procedures like rotator cuff repair and labral repair are vital for overhead athletes and aging populations alike. Advanced private centres also offer Tommy John surgery—a rare yet sought after elbow ligament reconstruction that is often unavailable publicly.
These are cutting-edge procedures often limited in public practice due to cost or equipment availability:
Private centres such as OVS are able to combine these procedures as needed to offer state of the art joint preservation care that rivals top institutions across the globe.
For ligament stabilization, impingement, or instability, ankle arthroscopy allows active individuals to avoid long-term complications, osteoarthritis and/or or premature salvage operations like fusion or arthroplasty.
With demand rising, many patients travel across Canada for faster care. Here’s how private clinics make it seamless:
| What to Look For | |
| Accreditation | CPSO Level 3 OHP certification |
| Surgeon Credentials | Fellowship-trained in sports medicine or subspecialties |
| Outcomes & Reviews | Patient satisfaction, published results, and testimonials |
| Facility Amenities | Onsite imaging, private recovery suites, concierge care |
| Rehab Access | Integrated physiotherapy and return-to-sport programs |
Clinics like OV Surgical check all these boxes, ensuring excellence from consult to recovery.
Private surgery is no longer niche—it’s becoming a vital part of the Canadian musculoskeletal care ecosystem. Trends this year include:
Don’t let pain and/or functional impairment control your year. Whether you’re recovering from an injury or trying to return to the golf course, soccer field, or everyday life—private orthopaedic surgery can help you get there faster and safer.
📍 Book a consultation at OV Surgical
📧 Email us at info@ovsurgical.ca for pricing or procedure information.
Let 2025 be the year you move forward—without waiting.