At Anna-Laberge Hospital in Châteauguay, nearly 2,000 people are waiting for cataract surgery, half of them for six months or more. The hospital center has one of the worst results in Quebec. A situation which endangers the autonomy of the elderly, denounce eyecare professionals.
“It’s unacceptable,” says Darkise Richard, optometrist and owner of the DR Visual Center, located in Châteauguay. Among her clients, approximately 250 are on the Anna-Laberge hospital waiting list for cataract surgery.
“Last week I applied for a patient because her vision had dramatically decreased,” she says. I had an appointment in August 2022. And it is for a preoperative meeting with the ophthalmologist. She will not be operated on at that time. “
Darkise Richard put “a little pressure” on Anna-Laberge to get ahead of this meeting. “They were able to bring that forward to us in June 2022,” she says. I’m afraid she’ll lose her driver’s license because her vision is going downhill, and it’s not going to improve by June. “
Carolina Ortiz is worried about her 81-year-old mother. His preoperative appointment with an ophthalmologist from Anna-Laberge is scheduled for March. “She complains a lot of headaches for no reason,” her daughter said. It is believed to be because of his vision. “
Carolina Ortiz says she is “disappointed” with the delays. “Most of the people who have cataracts are elderly,” she recalls. It would be very beneficial if the government could move operations forward a little bit, at least to give them a better quality of life for the time they have left to live. “
“Unacceptable”
How to explain such a situation? With a modern operating theater, the Anna-Laberge ophthalmology clinic was inaugurated a little over three years ago by the Liberal government.
Quebec has invested $ 2.6 million to improve the facilities, now located in the Center de santé Desjardins, a subsidiary of the Anna-Laberge Foundation. The government pays the latter a rent of $ 58,000 per month, according to a government press release dated August 2018. It was promised to perform 3,500 cataract operations per year.
However, since July 2020, no intervention has been carried out there. When questioned about this, the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest refused to grant an interview to the To have to.
In an email, the establishment replied that “the ophthalmology clinic is still open, although the unit is not used due to labor issues”. He specifies that surgical staff are currently focusing on “priority” operations in order to “meet deadlines, especially in oncology”.
Anna-Laberge ophthalmologists must therefore operate on their cataract patients at the DIX30 Surgery Specialized Medical Center, with which the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest has reached an agreement.
However, their time slots are limited there, compared to other hospitals with a shorter waiting list. This is what was denounced in March 2021 by the head of the ophthalmology department of the hospital, Dr.r Christian Ferremi, in a letter addressed to managers of the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest and whose The duty took notice.
According to the general manager of Chirurgie DIX30, Normand Laberge, Anna-Laberge’s doctors have access to 10% of the capacity of the ophthalmology operating room at her clinic, compared to 90% for those practicing in hospitals in Montérégie-Center. and Montérégie-Est.
However, 1,911 patients were waiting for a cataract operation at Anna-Laberge on November 14, against 17 at Haut-Richelieu hospital and 23 at Charles-Le Moyne hospital, according to the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS).
“It doesn’t make sense that in one place, there is no waiting, and that on the other side, there is a year of waiting, two years of waiting. This is unacceptable, ”says Dr Salim Lahoud, President of the Association des médecins ophtalmologistes du Québec.
According to him, the pandemic is there for a lot in these disparities. He recalls that the CIUSSS and CISSS were “proactive” when the MSSS allowed them to enter into agreements with private clinics in order to reduce waiting lists for surgery.
Other integrated centers, such as the one in Montérégie-Ouest, were less so and “gathered with very little availability” to perform cataract operations, continues Dr Lahoud. “Their patients have been penalized,” he laments.
It doesn’t make sense that in one place, there is no waiting, and that on the other side, there is a year of waiting, two years of waiting. This is unacceptable.
The president of the Association des médecins ophtalmologistes du Québec says he has reported the problem to the MSSS and is hopeful that solutions will be found when contracts with the clinics are renewed.
Chirurgie DIX30 says it is already open to “changing the time slots” if the network asks it to do so. “On the other hand, there are established contracts that are well written,” recalls Normand Laberge. It takes everyone’s permission, and it’s really up to the department to manage that. “
For its part, the MSSS indicates that it is currently evaluating “the distribution of operating priorities” between the hospitals of the CIUSSS and CISSS “in order to maximize equity between the different regions”.
In the office of the Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, it is said to work “hard to catch up” by tackling “head-on” the problem of lack of manpower, particularly among nurses.