'A surgery provided under contract is publicly funded health care, just like in a hospital,' said Health Minister Jason Copping
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About 25 per cent more eye procedures will be done in private surgical facilities this year in an effort to reduce surgical backlogs, the Alberta government announced Friday.
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Health Minister Jason Copping said Alberta Health Services has finalized new contracts to fund 35,000 eye surgeries a year, up from about 28,000 in current contracts.
There are 73,200 surgical patients in Alberta waiting for care as of mid-April, according to the province, down from 76,350 at the end of March.
Cataract surgery makes up the largest component of the province’s total surgical waitlist, Copping said. Funding private clinics to perform more surgeries will free up capacity and space in hospitals, he said.
“A surgery provided under contract in a (contracted surgical facility) is publicly funded health care, just like in a hospital. You don’t have to get out your credit card to pay for it and you get the same service you get in the hospital,” Copping said.
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“We need to maximize the roles of hospitals and clinics. And it’s not just eye surgeries, we need to do more surgeries across our entire system.”
The funding comes from a $133-million budget envelope over three years for the Alberta Surgical Initiative, which is aimed at increasing surgical capacity in the province.
At least 20,000 ophthalmology procedures will be done with Holy Cross Surgical Services and Vision Group Canada in Calgary this year as of April 1. Another 10,000 cataract surgeries in Edmonton will be done in chartered surgical facilities, according to the province.
“AHS is working with chartered surgical facilities to provide 5,000 more cataract surgeries in Edmonton as soon as possible,” a government release reads.
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The province has also hired health-care executive Ronan Segrave as Alberta’s independent surgical recovery lead with Alberta Health to oversee this work, Copping said.
During the conference, Segrave mentioned a plan to set up a centralized electronic referral system.
“This will ensure that (patients) are referred to the most appropriate surgeon with the shortest wait time for surgery,” Segrave said.
“We will explore opportunities and how to keep our operating rooms open longer, to offer more surgeries and boost workforce capacity so we have enough specialized nurses and anesthesia professionals with training to provide more surgeries.”
The province expected to receive $200 million from the federal government last month to address procedures and surgeries put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Copping said he could not confirm whether the province had received the funds, but that the $200 million will be used in addition to the province’s $750-million contingency fund for pandemic-related costs.
Copping did not give specific details as to how the money will be used to address the province’s surgical backlog.
NDP critical of approach
NDP health critic David Shepherd argued public dollars should not be directed to private facilities, calling on the UCP to stop plans to privatize health care.
“The UCP need only look next door to Saskatchewan to see how this strategy failed to sustainably reduce wait times,” Shepherd said in a news release.
The Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative in 2010 promised to allow all patients access to surgery within three months by 2014 by using private clinics to do some surgical procedures.
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Half of the patients in Saskatchewan did not have to wait more than 34 days for a non-emergency procedure from October to December 2021, according to a provincial database. However, around 10 per cent of patients waited at least 259 days.
“The Saskatchewan government poured public dollars into a scheme that has made some people very rich, but has ultimately failed patients and families.”
Copping said using chartered facilities is already a common practice in the province.
He said this approach has already cut down the median wait time for cataract removal to 10.1 weeks from 18.7 weeks during 2020-2021, he said.
“This is a success story. This is a model that is working.”
Twitter: @BrittGervaisAB
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Alberta to contract out more eye procedures to private facilities - Calgary Herald
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