This page is a practical guide for patients and caretakers exploring private knee surgery in Montréal: replacement, partial replacement, arthroscopy, ACL reconstruction. You can find a list of 11 accredited private knee surgeons below.
If you are a Québec resident, note that you cannot see a Québecois surgeon, unless they are opted-out (look for "Accepting patients from all provinces" in their profile). For more knee surgeon options, view Calgary, AB; Edmonton, AB; Vancouver, BC; Toronto, ON.
A globally recognized expert in complex orthopedics, specializing in limb lengthening and deformity correction, with extensive experience lower extremity orthopedics & pediatrics.
It depends on the surgeon's status. For medically necessary knee surgeries—such as knee replacement, partial replacement, arthroscopy, ACL reconstruction, or revision—Québec residents cannot pay privately to a surgeon enrolled in the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ).
However, Québec permits surgeons to formally opt out of RAMQ, in which case they may bill Québec residents directly for medically necessary knee procedures within the province. Many of the surgeons listed above are opted-out—look for "Accepting patients from all provinces." Out-of-province travel is generally only needed when a specific procedure or surgeon is not available privately in Québec.
If you are from another province, then you are free to pay out of pocket for private surgical services.
Curious about aftercare when travelling? Read our guide on aftercare when travelling for surgery.
Yes and no—you can reach out to any of the private surgeons listed on Surgency without a referral. Their intake teams are happy to answer questions, explain what they treat, share pricing ranges, and walk you through next steps.
However, to book a formal consultation with the surgeon, you'll typically need a referral from your family doctor or nurse practitioner. Don't have one? Many of the clinics can help coordinate a virtual GP appointment to get the referral paperwork sorted. All surgeons listed on Surgency offer virtual initial consultations, so you don't need to travel until you and the surgeon have agreed on a plan.
Before your consultation, expect the clinic to request relevant medical records and recent diagnostic imaging (X-ray, MRI, CT, ultrasound, lab work, etc.). Having these ready speeds up the process and lets the surgeon give you specific guidance on your very first call.
This is general information, please seek professional tax guidance.
RAMQ does not cover procedures at private clinics.
Standard extended health benefits (e.g. Sun Life, Manulife, Beneva) typically do not cover the cost of the surgery itself. However, they often cover related costs such as:
If your employer provides a Health Spending Account (HSA) or "flex account," you can often use these funds to pay for the surgery. Unlike standard benefits, HSAs are usually flexible enough to cover CRA-eligible medical expenses, including private facility fees.
You may be able to get some financial relief at tax time.
Medical Expense Tax Credit (METC): You can generally claim eligible private surgery fees as a medical expense on your federal tax return. Learn more about the METC here.
Québec Tax Credit for Medical Expenses: Québec has a parallel medical expense tax credit that can further reduce your provincial tax liability. You claim eligible expenses minus 3% of your combined family net income.
Refundable Tax Credit for Medical Expenses: Québec offers a second, refundable credit for low-income workers. If your work income is low but your medical expenses are high, Québec may pay you money back even if you paid no tax.
Travel costs: Mileage, parking, and accommodation may also be claimable if you travel more than 40 km (for travel expenses) or 80 km (for accommodation and meals) to receive medical services not available near your home.
Please consult a tax professional before claiming any private surgery fees on your taxes.
Surgency is free for patients, funded by surgeons/surgical providers.
Surgeons and providers—who meet our listing criteria—pay a flat fee to list on the Surgency platform. To maintain objectivity, there are no commissions, referral fees, nor any ranking or recommending one surgeon over another.
Surgency is patient-first. Our goal is to make the process of finding a private surgeon as simple as possible. You choose who to contact. Learn more in our Advertising Policy.
Québec, in general, has the lowest prices offered for private surgery—compared to Alberta, BC, and Ontario. But the cost of knee surgery depends on the procedure, surgeon experience, facility, and the complexities of your case.
At the low end, for diagnostic arthroscopy, a private clinic in Montréal may charge between $4,000 - $6,000. At the higher end, for a total knee replacement, costs could be between $21,000 to $28,000 (read our knee replacement cost guide for more info). For a range of prices by procedure, see the Knee Surgery guide.
Pre-op imaging, medications, and physiotherapy may or may not be bundled in, so it's best to ask each clinic for a written, itemized quote.
Private surgeons typically charge a consultation fee because a surgical consult involves clinical work before, during, and after the appointment.
Most consultation costs range between $200 - $400, however they can be up to 10% of the overall surgery costs. In many cases this fee will get rolled into the total cost of the surgery itself—ask the surgeon.
A surgical consultation isn’t a “meet and greet.” It’s a formal medical assessment where the surgeon may:
Private clinics also cover operating costs that public hospitals don’t fund in the same way, including:
The consultation fee helps support these resources and the infrastructure required to provide timely, organized care outside publicly funded hospital operations.
As a family doctor in the public system, I believe transparency is a form of care. I created Surgency to help my patients struggling on long waitlists who wanted to understand all their options for timely medical attention.
Surgency is a free resource designed to empower and educate—helping you understand private pathways and find accredited surgeons within Canada. I hope Surgency brings you clarity.
Dr. Sean Haffey
Knee surgeons are orthopedic surgeons who specialize in conditions affecting the knee joint—including the bones, cartilage, ligaments, menisci, and tendons. The most common reasons people seek knee-specific care include:
You want a second opinion on whether surgery is the right next step
Please consult your physician for more guidance.
An estimated 424,384 surgeries are performed in Québec each year, with ~17,000 being knee replacements alone and thousands of ACL reconstructions, meniscus repairs, and other knee surgeries. Most medically necessary knee surgeries are delivered through the publicly funded Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ).
Unlike Ontario, Québec permits surgeons to "opt out" of RAMQ, allowing them to provide private knee surgery directly to Québec residents within the province. Several of the Montréal-area knee surgeons listed below are opted-out—look for "Accepting patients from all provinces."
Québec has the most established private surgical landscape in Canada, and Greater Montréal is at the centre of it. Opted-out knee surgeons and private clinics operate across the island and surrounding communities (Laval, Saint-Hubert, Joliette), offering privately funded total and partial knee replacement, arthroscopy, ACL reconstruction, and revision procedures.
What this means for you: Greater Montréal residents generally have more in-province private knee surgery options than patients in most other Canadian provinces. Depending on your procedure, you may be able to access private knee care without travelling out of province.
There are some ~42,000 of whom are waiting on orthopedic surgeries—mostly hip and knee replacements. Only 38% of knee replacements are completed within established benchmark time frames for timely care.
For knee replacements, 50% of patients are seen within 36 weeks, and 90% are seen within 69 weeks.
Wait times depend on urgency, imaging, and OR capacity.
If you’re over 60 with degenerative arthritis, you may be triaged differently than a younger patient with a locked knee or acute ligament injury. The fastest path usually comes from: clear diagnosis + complete imaging + documented failed conservative care.
In the Canadian medical system, wait times are divided into two distinct stages:
In Quebec, surgical wait times are managed through a centralized provincial system designed to ensure the most urgent cases are treated first. Surgeons assign patients a priority level (1–5) based on clinical criteria, which determines the target wait time for each procedure.
The province uses a tracking system called SGAS (Système de gestion de l'accès aux services) to manage surgical wait lists. As of the 2025/2026 reforms, this system operates under the oversight of Santé Québec.
Surgical priority is not determined on a first-come, first-served basis. Instead, surgeons use Diagnosis Prioritization Codes to assess each patient's clinical situation. When adding you to the wait list, your surgeon enters specific data into the SGAS (Système de gestion de l'accès aux services) system, including:
To address surgical backlogs, Quebec has introduced new measures:
Even after a priority level is assigned, your surgery date may shift due to:
