A look inside New Brunswick's first private cataract surgery clinic
CBC
Gemma Firlotte says New Brunswick's experiment with private surgical clinics suits her just fine.
The 71-year-old Nigadoo resident was sitting in the waiting area of a Bathurst ophthalmology clinic last week, tape over one eye, waiting for her turn in the operating room.
That's right: Firlotte was about to undergo cataract surgery in a clinic, not a hospital, something not allowed under provincial law until last fall.
The retired hospital worker said she was getting the operation much faster than if it had been at the Chaleur Regional Hospital, where she used to work.
"People were always complaining and had to wait too long, and I find here I haven't waited very long," she said.
From diagnosis to her appointment, "it was about three weeks. And the surgery is today."
The clinic, and the legislation that the Higgs government passed last fall to allow it to operate, has sparked a political debate about how much private health care New Brunswick should tolerate.
Green Party leader David Coon asked in the legislature last November why the Progressive Conservatives were opening the door to "corporate-owned surgical centres."
But given the staff shortages and long wait times in the province's hospitals, Health Minister Bruce Fitch said, "it would be naive for us to not to at least consider some of the alternatives to what has been occurring in the last little bit."
The clinic is owned by Dr. Robert Javidi, an ophthalmologist who has practised in the city for 20 years.
The basics of the arrangement are no different than those of a family doctor's office, which is also a private corporation: the doctor provides a service and bills Medicare for it.
Javidi's been doing consultations in his clinic for years, but until last fall, he had to send patients to the hospital so he could perform cataract surgery.
That took up valuable operating room time and space that might have been used for other procedures.
The province and the Vitalité Health Network say they have put safeguards in place to avoid the risks of more private care.
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