Bariatric Surgery

Bariatric surgery, in combination with a healthy diet and exercise, is a treatment option for improving obesity and obesity-related diseases. It involves making changes to the digestive system to assist in the management of weight and ultimately improving health and well-being.

To help more people access bariatric surgical care, the Ontario Bariatric Network (OBN) has 12 designated Bariatric Centres in Ontario that offer comprehensive pre-operative, peri-operative and post-operative care. In partnership with Unity Health Toronto, Michael Garron Hospital (MGH) has a Bariatric Centre of Excellence to provide the East Toronto community access to bariatric surgical care close to home.

About the Bariatric Centre of Excellence

Our Bariatric Centre of Excellence is a partnership with Unity Health Toronto. It includes an assessment centre at Providence Healthcare and three bariatric surgery sites: St. Michael’s Hospital, St. Joseph’s Health Centre and MGH.

Patients seen at our Bariatric Centre first visit the Providence site to meet with an interprofessional team of bariatric experts. The team helps patients assess if this is the right time to undergo bariatric surgery and discuss the different factors to consider as they make this decision.

Surgery can then take place at one of the three surgical sites. Patients wanting to receive their bariatric surgical care at MGH can specify this with their physician during the referral process.

Referrals from primary care

Our Bariatric Centre of Excellence can be accessed through referral by a primary care provider. Referring providers must register and submit referrals through the Ontario Bariatric Network's (OBN) online referral system.

While the OBN assigns each patient to one of its local centres based on geography, providers have the option to indicate a preference for our Bariatric Centre in the comments section during the referral process.

Visit the Ontario Bariatric Network's (OBN) website for more information.