People of lower socioeconomic status less likely to receive cataract surgery in private clinics, research shows

Despite increased funding for cataract surgeries to private, for-profit clinics, access to surgery fell 9% for lower-income people, according to new research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. “Unexpectedly, despite new public funding for operations provided in private for-profit surgical centers, which was intended to fully cover all overhead costs and remove the need to charge patients, this disparity did not decrease, but instead grew during the funding change period,” says lead author Dr. Robert Campbell, a clinician–scientist in the Department of Ophthalmology at Queen’s University and a senior adjunct scientist at ICES. The COVID-19 pandemic created backlogs for Read More