Cochlear surgery impasse continues

Re: “Boost access to cochlear surgery: MDs” (Montreal Gazette, May 24)

Despite all our efforts and rational reasoning to establish cochlear implant surgery in Montreal as a McGill University and Université de Montréal joint program, we are still at an impasse.

This is despite the fact that most patients operated on in Quebec City come from the Montreal area and need to displace themselves for this procedure. This represents a cost to the patient, their family and to the provincial budget. It may also preclude treatment for Quebecers who do not wish to displace themselves for the surgery in Quebec City.

This is despite the fact that we have trained expert surgeons here in Montreal to perform the implant, a surgical procedure that has become routine and commonplace all over the world.

This is despite a mandate from the Royal College of Canada to have every university training program proficient in cochlear implantation.

This is despite the fact that there already exists a world-class cochlear implant research program here in Montreal that promotes the international profile for Quebec.

This is despite the fact that Quebec City-implanted patients have continued to receive their rehabilitation in Montreal at the Mackay Centre and at the Institut Raymond-Dewar.

How do we explain this to patients who come to us requesting treatment of their deafness or to patients who may come to us after complications from their Quebec City implantations?

Please take note that the request for a Montreal-based cochlear implant program is supported by the following organizations: the departments of Otolaryngology, Université de Montréal and McGill University; Département d’oto-rhino-laryngologie de l’Université de Sherbrooke; Association d’Oto-Rhino-Laryngologie et de chirurgie cervico-faciale du Québec; the department of audiology at Université de Montréal; Cochlear Implant Recipients Association of Montreal.

Nader Sadeghi, MD, professor and chairman, McGill Department of Otolaryngology, McGill University Health Centre, and 10 other doctors