Timing talk...Toronto Western Hospital (TWH) 2016/2017

So curious about timing.

I met with my endocrinologist early Nov and have my orientation on Feb 13. Wondering how long from referral to surgery is typical at TWH.

Thanks in advance! 

in the orientation they say average 1 year and i think that might be true.  i finished all my appointments quite quickly but if i had stayed at TWH for my surgery i would be looking at june/july which put me at about the 1 year mark.  TWH is great i love all the people there but i believe there are only 2 surgeons.  guelph has 4 - so i opted to transfer there for my surgery.

there are 4 surgeons at TWH

Dr. Tim Jackson, Dr. Allan Okrainec, Dr.Todd Penner, and Dr. David Urbach. I believe there is also 4 at Guelph but don't know who they are as I was in TWH..

the wait time differs because the Ontario government allot so many surgeries per location a year. but TWH has a much bigger patient list so they have to stop doing surgeries when they hit their quota and then  get backed up until they are able to start doing them again. So they have started pushing some to Guelph to help off set the bigger load.  

Pushing patients to Guelph is a relatively new thing  maybe in the last six months or so, I'm guessing they are new to the "Bariatric Centres of Exellence" program and have very little patient list and this is a great way to fill their quota.

Guelph's centre has been open for several years. It's only recently that they had the capacity to accept other patients. Having said that, one of their surgeons just went on mat leave so I don't know how much longer they will be able to do that. 

I had my referral in January 2016, and had my orientation in Early May. Things were extremely backed up but I was diligent about calling for cancellations in the fall and got referred to Guelph for surgery at the end of November.  I am having my surgery at Guelph on Monday (Jan. 30). 

They will tell you in orientation.. to expect the process to take at least a year from your orientation date... You should have at least 6 appointments...check out my signature to see what you will get..  You may need more appointments.. sometimes they will have you come back...or you may need to schedule for other testing..   If you snore... then I would check with your doctor about getting a sleep test to see if you have sleep apnea... (it will save you time in the process if you do it yourself)  If you already have sleep apnea... make sure that it's been within 2 years since the last test....

Right now TWH is extremely backlogged... I've been cleared for surgery..and now waiting for them to call to book my surgeon appt.. or give me the option to go to guelph. 

Use this time to start making changes in your diet...cutting out pop and other bad habits... :)

I'm with TWH. My referral went in at the end of September 2015...orientation December 2015 and surgery is in less than a week. So referral to surgery...approx. 17 months.

It can be a long process that tested my patience a few times but now that surgery is here....it's gone quick. 

Try to even get multiple appointments on the same day. I know some people do that.

My orientation was a year ago today ( i know because my comments on it were on my Facebook memories today)

my surgeon appointment was in January (backed up from my original surgeon date in November due to back ups)

my date for surgery is March 27th. so a bout a year and a bit. but TWH was great for me. informative and helpful. 

good luck

I kept hearing that Toronto was backed up. I was curious because as a revision patient I also heard that Toronto was the only place who would do my revision in one surgery. 

All of my appointments are through Windsor and then they told me I can choose where to go for my surgery, when I mentioned my preference of having one surgery and the rumours of Toronto being backed up, they said that they have not heard this to be true. Now I don't know exactly what to believe, but that's all I can tell you :) 

I can give you an idea of my timeline so far 

referral - October 2016 

orientation - November 2016 

Nurse consult - December 2016 

Doctor & social work - January 2017 (got doctors approval and she said I will not need a follow up with her!) 

Nut class - February 2017 

follow up with social work & dietician appt - march 2017 

Has anyone looked into self-pay options - what the approximate price is and what the associated wait time may be for that?