By Chris Brown

25 per cent more

Province signs new deals with chartered facilities for more eye surgeries

Apr 23, 2022 | 9:00 AM

Alberta’s health minister said Friday that as the world begins to learn to live with COVID, the government will speed up its push to transform the province’s surgical system.

New contracts have been signed with Holy Cross Surgical Services and Vision Group Canada in Calgary and Edmonton, and came into effect on April 1.

“We’re going to fund 25 per cent more cataract surgeries and other eye procedures this year in chartered surgical facilities,” Copping said at a Calgary eye clinic. “AHS has finalized new contracts that will fund 35,000 eye surgeries per year compared to about 28,000 in the current contracts. That will drive wait times down and we’ll increase the volume even further in future if we need to. We’re building on the role that CSFs have had for decades to meet our goals for patients and for our health-care system.”

Copping said the median wait time for cataract removal this year is almost half of what it was last year from 18.7 weeks to 10.1 weeks, the shortest wait time for the surgery in seven years, he added.

He said using private clinics in Calgary and Edmonton for ophthalmological surgeries, particularly cataract surgeries, will free up space for other surgeries in AHS facilities.

Meaningful Mementos

Remembering Someone You've Lost at Christmas

Dec 03, 2024

Seasonal Sorrow

How Do You Get Through The Holidays When You're Grieving?

Nov 01, 2024

Upcoming Events at Oliver's

Grief & Loss and Estate Planning Seminars

Oct 02, 2024

“We need to stop accepting that it’s normal for patients to wait too long. That’s not good enough for the individual patients and it erodes confidence in our publicly-funded health system overall,” Copping said.

Copping also introduced a new independent surgical recovery lead with Alberta Health.

Ronan Segrave said he aims to create savings in the health system and provide more publicly-funded surgeries as quickly as possible.

According to a news release from the province, Segrave has supported and advised on more than 30 major operational reviews of surgical services in hospitals in the United Kingdom and Canada, including in Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia.