The Innisfail Health Centre has started offering eye surgery in order to take advantage of empty space at the hospital here while reducing burdens on Red Deer facilities.
Innisfail will become the main location where cataract operations are offered between Wetaskiwin and Calgary and health officials say they hope to ramp up to 1,200 yearly procedures.
“The reason we did that is to free up some operating room time at the Red Deer Regional Hospital for urgent, emergent and elective surgeries,” said Cathy McDonald, vice-president, Alberta Health Services Central Zone.
“Innisfail is a good solution because we had space available at the site. And it's close to Red Deer, which allows the ophthalmologists to travel from Red Deer to provide those services.”
Three ophthalmologists have begun working out of the Innisfail hospital, offering surgeries three days a week. Nursing and support staff levels have been increased to deal with the influx of new patients.
Cataracts affect 2.5 million Canadians as clouding in the lens of the eye obstructs the ability to see properly. A study released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information in 2011 found just 48 per cent of Albertans requiring cataract surgery received the procedure within the benchmark of 16 weeks, compared to the national average of 83 per cent.
“It's very specialized surgery,” McDonald said, noting moving cataract procedures to Innisfail will allow the Red Deer hospital to respond better to unexpected situations. “If someone comes in unexpectedly requiring surgery it's freeing up some time that was being used in Red Deer for ophthalmology.”
The prevalence of eye diseases in the community was not a factor considered in the decision, she stressed.
“I think it's a really exciting opportunity that we're able to maximize the use of our health facility in Innisfail,” she said, noting the first surgery took place April 15. “We will be servicing patients from across the central zone.”
Pediatric surgeries and medically complex procedures requiring general anesthetic will still be done in Red Deer.
