New Brunswick·NewThe province’s newest cataract clinic was almost forced to shut down until April because it completed its allocated volume of surgeries for 2025-26 within its first six months.Southern N.B. Surgical Centre in Quispamsis approved to perform 1,000 more surgeriesListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.About six doctors and 10 nurses work at the Southern New Brunswick Surgical Centre in Quispamsis, along with clerical and cleaning staff. (CBC)The province’s newest cataract clinic was almost forced to shut down until April because it completed its allocated volume of surgeries for 2025-26 within its first six months.But the Southern New Brunswick Surgical Centre in Quispamsis, outside Saint John, has received enough funding to perform an additional 1,000 surgeries, the Department of Health has confirmed.Neither the department nor Horizon Health Network would disclose the dollar amount.Horizon is “grateful” the department has approved its request to “reallocate surgical program funds to support an additional 1,000 cataract surgeries at the Southern New Brunswick Surgical Centre,” Greg Doiron, the regional health authority’s vice-president of clinical operations said in an emailed statement.”This demonstrates our mutual commitment to ensuring timely access to this high-demand procedure for patients in the Saint John area,” he said.About 3,000 surgeries completed so farThe Southern New Brunswick Surgical Centre is one of six private clinics Horizon and Vitalité have partnered with to complete cataract surgeries outside a hospital setting.It opened in May, with nearly $3 million in approved funding per fiscal year for both 2025-26 and 2026-27, department spokesperson Sean Hatchard said.That was enough to cover 3,100 surgeries this fiscal, according to Amy McCavour, Horizon’s executive director of surgical services.By Nov. 7, the clinic had already completed 2,932 surgeries, McCavour said in an emailed statement.Of those, 525 patients had been waiting more than a year, she said.Horizon did not respond to questions about how many patients in the Saint John region are still on the waitlist for cataract surgery or how long they’ve been waiting.On Nov. 10, Horizon submitted a proposal to the department “to continue ongoing access to cataract surgeries for patients in the Saint John area at this clinic,” McCavour said.Half completed sooner than provincial targetAccording to the province’s surgical wait times website, five out of 10 surgeries at the Southern New Brunswick Surgical Centre were completed within 165 days.That’s about two months faster (59 days) than the 224 days five out of 10 cataract surgeries took at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Saint John, and two weeks faster than the province’s target of 180 days, the website shows.Nine out of 10 surgeries were completed within 604 days at the clinic and within 281 days at the hospital.The other approved cataract clinics in the province include the Acadie-Bathurst Ophthalmology Centre, Centre chirurgical d’Edmundston, Fredericton Surgical Centre, Surgicentre Moncton, and Miramichi Cataract Surgical Centre.The overall funding the department is providing to the six clinics is about $15.4 million per fiscal year, the Department of Health spokesperson said.The department is working with both regional health authorities “to ensure sustainable access to cataract surgeries across the province,” Hatchard said.
11th-hour funding keeps new Saint John-area cataract clinic operating
