Ontario patients fear vision loss as no end in sight to optometrists' dispute with province

After enduring four eye surgeries this year alone, Lisa Adams has nearly completed the painful and strenuous process of improving her unusually severe nearsightedness and macular degeneration. 

One step remains: an optometrist must examine her eyes to determine her new prescription for trifocal lenses so she can properly see.

The problem is her appointment was cancelled.

As of Sept. 1, 98 per cent of optometrists are withholding their services from the 2.9 million patients covered for eye care under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), including kids under 19, people over 65 and those with certain eye conditions, like Adams.

The Ontario Association of Optometrists (OAO) has recommended its members withdraw the service to put pressure on the province to hike the amount it pays per examination. But almost a month in, the two parties remain at a standstill with no end in sight. 

Adams, 38,  who lives in the Durham Region and is a school board social worker, is now left with throbbing headaches as she strains to see and work. Before the retinal and lens replacement surgeries, she said she was considered legally blind and wore a prescription of negative 32. Now she needs one for about negative six.

"My vision has changed a million times in the last five months, with every surgery, so my brain is very confused as to how to operate my eyes," said Adams.