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Cataract surgery in Calgary gets $2M boost

Provincial plan targets lengthy Calgary waits

By Colette Derworiz, Calgary Herald May 21, 2010

Less than a month after a controversy over cataract surgeries, the province's medical super-board says it will dole out another $2 million to add 1,400 of the procedures and up to 120 corneal transplants in Calgary and Edmonton by September.

The Tories and Alberta Health Services announced Thursday the province will pay for the additional surgeries in a continued attempt to reduce lengthy waiting lists, particularly in Calgary.

"I'm ecstatic," said Dr. Ken Romanchuk, Calgary's chief of ophthalmology with Alberta Health Services. "It's very, very good news for Calgary.

"Our wait list (is) much larger than any of the other health regions."

There will be 1,000 publicly funded cataract surgeries performed at private facilities in Calgary and another 400 in Edmonton -- including 100 at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

The surgical blitz, which will cost $2 million, reopens the process to all accredited surgical facilities after ophthalmologists complained about a move at the end of March to concentrate 2,140 eye surgeries at four major centres in Calgary and Edmonton.

It led to cancelled and rescheduled procedures after clinics were given just days to move surgeries from their offices to the chosen clinics.

Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky, who has met with the ophthalmologists, said the earlier bid process led to $1.4 million in savings and allowed the province to move forward with some additional surgeries this summer.

"It's all working out," he said. "I know it's been a little bit rough getting there, but we're getting some positive results from it."

Zwozdesky said the second blitz addresses wait lists, and the concerns of the public and facility owners.

"Everybody who expresses an interest will receive some work," Zwozdesky said. "It will depend on their wait-lists, on their capacity, on their availabilities and so on. It'll get done in a fair manner."

Calgary cataract patients and ophthalmologists applauded the move.

"That sounds like a step in the right direction," said Dr. Robert Mitchell. "Obviously it's a stop-gap, Band-Aid, temporary fix, but it's better than nothing. We've got lots and lots of patients sitting around and waiting for this surgery."

Both Mitchell Eye Centre and the Surgical Centres Inc., the facilities that won the controversial bid in March, said there's lots of capacity to accommodate additional surgeries.

Dr. Howard Gimbel, owner of Gimbel Eye Centre, said it's great news for the patients.

"We are hopeful that it will be distributed so that the people waiting the longest will get the priority," he said.

Jan Joynt, who was diagnosed with cataracts last fall, said she'd like to see the wait list reduced so people like her can move up in the queue.

"I am not critical," she said, noting she was told it could take years to get her surgery. "It would be nice to see the people who are critical done first, naturally."

There's about 8,400 Calgarians on the wait list for cataract surgery and the average wait is about a year, according to AHS.

Romanchuk said the additional surgeries will make a big dent in the list.

"It's about a 30 per cent increase," he said, noting there will be a total of 11,000 cataract surgeries performed this year compared with 8,500 in 2009.

Ophthalmologists said they would like to see even more surgeries added to help clear the wait list -- a strong possibility after the health minister suggested Thursday there could still be a third, fall blitz this year, before the province moves toward five-year contracts in 2011.