1. The agency responsible for health­care spending in Sarnia­Lambton and Chatham­Kent wants to hear from patients about what’s working
and what isn’t as it develops a vision care strategy for the area, a spokesperson says.
“What we’re looking at is ‘Can people get care when they need it?’” said Shannon Sasseville, with the Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration
Network (LHIN) that also oversees health­care spending in Windsor­Essex.
Strategy development includes recruiting three patient volunteers – people who’ve experienced cataract surgery, glaucoma, diabetic
retinopathy or other eye diseases – to join a Vision Care Steering Committee that includes health­care providers, Sasseville said.
“Patients have that first­hand knowledge that sometimes we don’t have and we really need that,” Sasseville said.
Hopes are also to get feedback via a survey, available at eriestclairlihin.on.ca, and in hard copy at some community health centres, doctors’
offices and retirement homes.
Strategy planning – expected to continue for the next few months – will be based on the responses and around a 2013 Ministry of Health
and Long­Term Care list of strategic recommendations for ophthalmology in the province, Sasseville said.
Among its recommendations, LHINs were tasked with planning for an aging contingent of eye surgeons, with one in five expected to hit age
70 by 2016.
There are about 15 ophthalmologists in the Essex­Kent­Lambton region, but their ages aren’t currently known, Sasseville said.
Strategy planners are honing in on the time it takes from referral to surgery, and other treatment options, she said.
“We’re really interested in access because access and wait times is always a challenge in many areas of health care.”
Access for people with eye emergencies is thought to already be pretty good, she said.
“We want to confirm that is the case.”
Plans are to also engage optometrists: something that hasn’t happened yet, Sasseville said.
“We just haven’t had the opportunity to reach out to everybody yet,” she said.
NEWS LOCAL
LHIN looking for feedback, patient advisors
By Tyler Kula, Sarnia Observer
Thursday, December 29, 2016 3:26:52 EST PM

2.
It’s important optometrists be involved, as they’re integral in the vision care system, said Dr. Jessica St. Pierre Street, an optometrist at
Petrolia Optometry – one of about a dozen sites providing printed copies of the LHIN survey.
“The main source of referrals for eye surgery … for example, cataract surgery, come from optometrists,” said St. Pierre Street.
Optometrists also do pre and post­operation care for ophthalmologists’ patients and help address those patients’ questions and concerns,
she said, noting they also do some prescribing and removal of foreign bodies from people’s eyes.
It’s more cost­effective provincially if people see optometrists for eye emergencies than hospital emerge doctors, she said. Many optometrist
services for adults are not covered by OHIP, but annual routine eye exams for people under age 20 are covered.
St. Pierre Street also noted uptake has been poor in Lambton and Kent – under three per cent – for an Eye See … I Learn program that
offers free eye exams and free glasses, if needed, to kids entering junior kindergarten.
“It doesn’t matter what school board they’re in, it doesn’t even matter if they’re homeschooled, if they require glasses, they are provided free
of charge,” she said.
To apply as a patient advisor for the LHIN Vision Care Team, visit eriestclairlhin.on.ca, or call Alie Teetzel at 1­866­231­5446 ext. 3215.
tkula@postmedia.com
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