Surgery restored

Cataract surgery patients won’t have to wait for surgery at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre after all.

Lori Marshall, the hospital’s acting vice president of patient care and health professions, said a deal has been reached with the North West Local Health Integration Network to fund the surgeries through the end of the month, the close of their fiscal year.

“We had been working with them all along. They were able to negotiate some additional dollars through the ministry of health,” Marshall said.

“Thirty-eight patients who were cancelled over the time period that we’d identified … have been now been rebooked.”

Marshall added negotiations for 2013-14 will take cataract surgery volumes into consideration when setting the new budget.
“The funding will be based on what (the LHIN) determines to be our appropriate volumes.”

The hospital had performed or scheduled 1,817 cataract surgeries as of Feb. 20, 38 more than budgeted for.