Wait instances for cataract surgical procedures in Waterloo Area are down, as extra publicly-funded surgical procedures are being performed in non-public clinics as an alternative of hospitals.
It’s a partnership that started in Could 2021, in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and one which expanded as soon as the province gave the greenlight to extend the variety of procedures.
Cataract surgical procedures, that aren’t difficult, may be performed on the Kitchener Waterloo TLC Laser Eye Centre.
Christiane Dijong had surgical procedure on each her eyes on the clinic in June, a process that took only a few minutes.
“It went great,” she advised Ontario Chronicle shortly afterwards, including she felt nothing in the course of the surgical procedure and solely noticed shiny lights.
She was cared for by Dr. Chryssa McAlister, who performs surgical procedures at each TLC and St. Mary’s Basic Hospital in Kitchener.
“All of the surgeons in our region, including myself, do surgeries at both [locations],” McAlister mentioned.
Some sufferers desire going to the non-public clinic, as they don’t want an intravenous line and might eat breakfast earlier than the process.
“They still get a little sedation, but it’s a little tablet that they put under their tongue instead of through the intravenous line,” McAlister defined. “And that probably makes it overall maybe a little easier for patients.”
Imaginative and prescient Group Canada, which TLC Laser Eye Centre operates below, mentioned in 2023 there have been 2,686 publicly-funded cataract surgical procedures carried out in Kitchener-Waterloo. This previous January, they obtained approval and authorities funding through the Built-in Neighborhood Well being Companies Centres (ICHSC) to do one other 2,600 procedures this yr.
“It’s a benefit for our patients. The waitlists have come down quite dramatically,” mentioned Dr. Jaspreet Reyat, one other ophthalmologist who performs surgical procedures at each St. Mary’s Hospital and TLC.
Every surgeon has their very own checklist of sufferers so wait instances differ, however Reyat mentioned his sufferers at the moment are getting their cataract surgical procedures performed inside a few months, in comparison with the earlier one to 2 yr wait.
Reyat mentioned nearly all of cataract circumstances may be performed in non-public clinics and transferring the simple surgical procedures to TLC means there may be extra availability on the hospital to do extra difficult procedures. These may embody somebody that has waited too lengthy, has pre-existing eye circumstances or different medical circumstances, harm or trauma.
“So it’s a benefit for the entire system,” Reyat added.
Medical doctors are paid the identical by OHIP, whether or not the surgical procedure takes place in hospital or at TLC.
“There’s a lot of capacity in facilities where historically non-publicly-funded procedures were done,” Dr. Mark Cohen, the CEO of Imaginative and prescient Group Canada, mentioned.
His hope is that quickly there can be no wait instances for cataract surgical procedures in Waterloo Area.
“It’s a very, very quick surgery and it’s life-changing. Patients come in not seeing well and… they walk out seeing well.”
Considerations about privatization
Not everybody, nonetheless, sees the partnership as a superb factor.
“Privatization of our public hospital services, in our estimation, is a really bad idea,” mentioned Jim Stewart, with the Waterloo Area Well being Coalition.
As an alternative of paying for surgical procedures performed in non-public clinics, Stewart would really like the federal government to supply extra funding so hospitals can broaden their surgical capability.
“It’s not just a slippery slope. We’re falling off the cliff here. This is a dire emergency for our public hospitals. If we don’t stop this privatization right now, we’ll end up with American-style hospitals, American-style costs and American-style health insurance,” he mentioned.
Stewart notes that the province has already introduced a plan to ultimately transfer much more procedures to personal centres, together with hip and knee replacements.
“This is going to de-stabilize, basically take away our identity as Canadians, because we really value and cherish our compassionate public health care system, which isn’t driven by profit, isn’t driven by money. It’s driven by people’s need for health care as something we all believe in, and that’s being destroyed.”
Imaginative and prescient group responds to criticisms
Dr. Cohen mentioned the partnership means TLC is actually an extension of St. Mary’s Basic Hospital.
One other frequent criticism of cataract procedures performed in non-public clinics is that they upsell costly lenses that sufferers should pay for out of pocket.
Cohen mentioned some sufferers do decide to pay for particular lenses that eradicate the necessity for glasses, however that’s dealt with the identical method it’s for sufferers who’ve their cataract surgical procedure in hospital.
“We charge the same fees as the hospital for the lenses,” Cohen defined. “That conversation happens with the doctor, their patients and in the doctor’s office.”
Cohen added that they don’t seem to be taking away further workers from hospitals to do these surgical procedures, as TLC already employs personnel for the opposite surgical procedures they carry out at their facility. He mentioned in addition they rent semi-retired nurses or those that now not work on the hospital.
“We’re not taking staff away from the halls. We’re adding to the capacity in the community.”
“Thinking outside the box”
McAlister mentioned the best way the partnership between St. Mary’s and TLC developed is one among its strengths.
“I would say that is probably one of the keys to the success of our program, that it’s always been done intentionally through a partnership with the hospital, trying to deal with the volumes, and it has sort of evolved from there.”
Reyat describes it as a inventive method.
“Critical health infrastructure like hospitals and ORs [operating rooms] aren’t built overnight. And so you have to kind of think out of the box in something different to say, ‘hey, how can we use our existing resources to get these waitlist down?’ I think we’ve done that here in Kitchener-Waterloo with this collaboration.”
For extra on native surgeons and their wait instances, you possibly can go to the Waterloo Regional Eye Program’s web site.
