There is a significant backlog of residents waiting for cataract surgery on the province’s west coast.
The matter was raised in the House of Assembly by Independent MHA Eddie Joyce.
He says cataract surgeries haven’t been performed at the Sir Thomas Roddick Hospital since January of 2021, and there are currently over 800 people on the wait list.
Photo via Town of Stephenville.
Health Minister John Haggie confirmed the news, saying the number of cataract surgeries performed at Western Health facilities over the last year has dropped by 99 percent.
Haggie says the reason why no surgeries have been performed is because “when there was a defect with the microscope the person concerned said he was not going back to Stephenville.” Haggie says the issue has been fixed, there are some contractual issues they are looking into, and they are awaiting the return of the surgeon.
Joyce says if the surgeries were performed in a public facility then they would be covered by MCP. He says the issue is not funding, but rather the location of the surgeries.
Joyce says people he has heard from don’t care where they get surgery as long as they get their eye sight, and is calling on the Premier to meet with specialists.
Minister Haggie says there is capacity at facilities across the province, they have bought additional cataract surgeries but they did not expect that the RHA list would be abandoned for a more “lucrative approach.”
