EYE SURGERY WILL PROCEED,
Nanaimo man relieved to learn B.C. consenting to private procedures
Peter Moore, a Nanaimo engineer scheduled for cataract surgery this week, was one happy patient Monday. And that’s before he’s even had the procedure to improve his vision.
As a result of a last-minute consent order by the B.C. government, Moore’s procedure at the Cambie Surgery Centre in Vancouver will take place on Friday. This, after Moore received a phone call from his doctor’s office a few weeks ago advising him that because of the court battle between the provincial government and the private clinic, his case, booked in August, would be punted over to the public hospital system and he would have to wait for the case to be rescheduled. Not only that, but Moore would not get the procedure done with the advanced computer technology he was banking on, because it exists only at the Cambie clinic, he said.
Moore is just one of the hundreds of patients notified in recent weeks that their surgeries at private clinics would be cancelled as of today. They all got a reprieve Monday when the provincial government decided “out of respect” that it would hold off on proclaiming new penalties against privatepay clinics until after a judge rules on the matter of an injunction.
Moore, 62, said when he heard the court case would result in clinics being ordered to stop all cases involving patient payments for expedited care, he was deflated and immediately began inquiring about Seattle medical centres where he might get the same procedure using new technology — a femtosecond laser — to make the incisions instead of a conventional hand-held scalpel. There are few studies comparing results with the new technology to conventional techniques.
Moore, an engineer who works within the energy field, advising industries how to reduce their B.C. Hydro energy consumption, said the vision in his right eye was destroyed years ago by macular degeneration. To continue working in his field, he has to get the cataract surgery in his left eye. The cataract developed after a torn retina in the same eye in 2013.
He said there is urgency in getting the surgery, as the cataract has caused his crystalline lens to thicken to the point where it is chafing against his iris, dislodging pieces of pigment, and the impaired drainage is causing his intraocular pressure to increase, threatening to cause glaucoma, which could lead to blindness.
Moore said once his eye specialists advised him that he needs quick surgery, he was referred to ophthalmologist Dr. Francis Law, one of several ophthalmologists who work in both public and private (Cambie) medical centres and who also uses the laser Moore believes he needs.
The surgery will set him back $6,000 and Moore said that covers the cost of the upgraded lens he is getting and the facility fee, which Cambie charges for its overhead, including its purchase of the laser.
The surgeon’s fee is paid by the Medical Services Plan.
“I’m very happy, very relieved, that my case is going to go ahead now, but I feel bad for all the other patients who may be denied the opportunity to choose where to have their surgery. The government’s intention to eliminate the private clinics is based on ideology, not common sense.”
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janet Winteringham said last week she needs more time to decide whether to issue an injunction against the prohibitive laws the government has introduced over private clinics and surgeons working in them. It means Bill 92 will temporarily be held in abeyance, until the judge issues her ruling, Oct. 30 at the earliest.