The fine print on ‘eliminated’ cataract-surgery backlog By: Danielle Da Silva Posted: 9:42 AM CST Sunday, Dec. 4, 2022

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This article was published 03/12/2022 (752 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Phil Hayden was elated when he read the Manitoba government had cleared the pandemic backlog of cataract surgeries.

The announcement by Health Minister Audrey Gordon prompted the 76-year-old Winnipegger, who had been diagnosed with early-stage cataracts, to phone his ophthalmologist and ask when he would be called for a surgical consultation.

However, the receptionist quickly, and regretfully, dashed Hayden’s hopes his vision would be corrected in the near future.

His wait time hadn’t changed from the 12 to 16 months he had been quoted to see a surgeon, and another one to six months to receive surgery.

“It gives false hope,” said Hayden, who reached out to the Free Press after reading about Gordon’s boast. “The wait times are still atrocious.”

On Nov. 16, Gordon said the diagnostic and surgical recovery task force had reached a milestone by eliminating the backlog of cataract surgeries, caused the pandemic, at the end of September.

“The pandemic backlog for cataract surgery has now been fully eliminated,” Gordon said at the time.

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The province defines the pandemic backlog as the difference between current wait-lists and wait-lists from 2019, before COVID-19 caused massive disruptions to health care.

For Hayden, and thousands of other Manitobans who need cataract surgery, the figure promoted by the government ignores significant bottlenecks for consultation and treatment.

“I’m sure the treatment is A-1,” Hayden said. “It’s getting to the treatment that cheeses me off.”

Dr. Jennifer Rahman, president of Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, said wait-lists for cataract consultations remain long and backlogged, despite progress towards reducing the number of patients waiting for cataract procedures.

She agreed the messaging from the province can be confusing for patients.

“They’re giving the public a false impression and that’s a problem,” she said.

At present, patients should expect to wait 12 months or more for a consultation for cataract surgery, because there aren’t enough doctors to meet the growing demand of our aging population, Rahman said.

“We have a very high volume of patients to deal with and there’s actually not that many of us,” Rahman said, noting Manitoba has half as many ophthalmologists as the rest of the country, on a per capita basis. “We are trying our best to see those people, process them for cataract surgery and then get them done.”

Lengthy waits are compounded by an increasingly heavy workload for eye physicians in public health centres, primarily at Misericordia Health Centre.

Urgent and emergent cases referred to on-call specialists bump routine patients and consultations further down the wait-list, Rahman explained.

Some on-call physicians at Misericordia are being saddled with additional administration work that cuts into their time to offer consultations, Rahman said.

A proposal is in the works to improve support for doctors with allied health professionals, she noted. Meanwhile, she’s looking at extending her hours to bring down her wait list.

“I’m personally finding myself quite stretched with that responsibility as well as with the regular patients that we see,” Rahman said. “We’re all kind of burning the candle at both ends trying to get our appointments down.”

The current list of people waiting for surgery remains a significant concern, Rahman said.

The province said at least 5,700 patients were waiting for cataract surgery in September, and the median wait time was 15 weeks.

However, some wait much longer, Rahman said, noting wait times reported by the province may be skewed as it averages waits for first and second eye procedures. Typically, surgery on the second eye is performed very shortly after the first.

Earlier this year, Rahman said the wait-list was at 29 weeks for the first eye. The national benchmark is 16 weeks.

The hiring of private surgical centres to handle high-volume, routine cataract surgery cases is appreciated by patients and physicians alike, Rahman said. But secure, sustainable funding for Misericordia is needed so patients with complex cases, who have been waiting a long time, can be seen.

“We’re anecdotally finding that a lot of the cataract surgery that we’re doing is a lot different, a lot more mature: hard cataracts that are difficult to remove and take longer,” she said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the task force said waits for cataract surgery consultations are not tracked, but the task force is open to suggestions for improvement.

“The (task force) is soliciting and receiving proposals that can help eliminate pandemic backlogs and long-term system needs to avoid future backlogs,” a spokesperson said.

Hayden, meanwhile, said he’ll carry on as he has always done — his eyesight is still good and the cataracts can be managed with corrective glasses — but hopes he won’t be forced to squint for too much longer.

“I guess it all boils down to the almighty dollar,” he said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca

Danielle Da Silva
Reporter

Danielle Da Silva is a general assignment reporter.

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