A local vision to fill a gap in healthcare is coming into focus.
A Locum Ophthalmology Clinic has opened at the Medical Building next to Timmins and District Hospital.
“It’s increasing the service and capacity for ophthalmology services, which means those patients who require an opthalmologist, who require more on the complex medical or surgical interventions have another avenue for accessing that care and not having to travel south,” said Dr. Doug Arnold, Timmins and District Hospital chief of staff.
By bringing in locums — doctors from other areas who visit the city for a period every month or couple of months — more people will be able to be diagnosed and treated by an ophthalmologist in the city.
Dr. Alejandro Oliver has worked in Timmins for about 15 years and is currently the sole full-time ophthalmologist in town. Because his clinic is so full, he's not accepting new patients, which has been taxing on Oliver and his staff.
“It’s really demoralizing. It’s heartbreaking because people that go into medicine, you do it to help and you know when you see somebody that needs your help and you have the skills to help them but you just don’t have the capacity, it’s really, it’s downright depressing. And it’s even hard for my staff because they answer the phones and patients will walk into the office and explain their situation, so it’s been very difficult, very taxing. Having an alternative for those patients that I can’t get to is huge. It’s going to be a game changer for us,” he said.
Dr. Marie Louise Lapointe is the first locum to sign on to the clinic and will be in Timmins for one week every month. She visited about a month ago to meet the staff and start organizing and has been seeing patients this week.
Oliver said she specializes in laser surgery to treat mainly glaucoma or complications of cataract surgery.
"We’re hoping that our next ophthalmologist to come will also be able to provide what’s called incisional surgery, or surgery in the operating room. And the most common eye surgery is cataract surgery so we’re hoping to provide that service in the near future,” he said.
Right now, Lapointe is the only locum.
“But we are in the process of recruiting and we have had interest from a few, we just haven’t sealed the deal, so to speak. We have a couple of irons in the fire,” said Arnold.
When people requiring an ophthalmologist can't get in to see one locally, Sudbury and North Bay are the nearest sites offering the services.
“Here it’s almost impossible because I am so busy, but even going away they’re waiting almost a year to get their surgery so it’s a huge need. It was always bad, but during COVID all the elective surgeries got cancelled so we fell very far behind,” said Oliver.
The clinic is an investment of $400,000, which includes the cost of renovating the building and buying the equipment.
The project received $185,000 from the Timmins and District Hospital Foundation and $250,000 from Ontario Health.
Over the years, there have been "great difficulties" to get an ophthalmologist permanently move to town, said Oliver.
“For somebody from down south to move here and set up a clinic like this is a very high bar, so that’s why we’ve been unsuccessful recruiting a second ophthalmologist here. We’ve decided to switch gears and instead of asking that commitment from the ophthalmologist, we just ask them for their time,” he said, adding that when they arrive in town everything from the equipment to staff is already set up.
