{"id":20127,"date":"2024-08-26T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-26T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ices.on.ca\/?post_type=news_release&p=20127"},"modified":"2024-08-26T07:53:49","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T11:53:49","slug":"people-of-lower-socioeconomic-status-less-likely-to-receive-cataract-surgery-in-private-clinics-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"news_release","link":"https:\/\/www.ices.on.ca\/fr\/news-releases\/people-of-lower-socioeconomic-status-less-likely-to-receive-cataract-surgery-in-private-clinics-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"People of lower socioeconomic status less likely to receive cataract surgery in private clinics, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toronto, ON, August 26, 2024<\/strong> \u2014 Following an infusion of public funding to for-profit surgical centres, the cataract surgery rate fell by 9% for people in the lowest socioeconomic group in these centres, according to new research from ICES<\/strong>, Queen\u2019s University<\/strong> and University of Toronto\u2019s Temerty Faculty of Medicine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In contrast, researchers found that the rate of cataract surgery for patients in the highest socioeconomic status group rose by 22% at private for-profit centres. Cataract surgery rates fell equally for all patient groups in publicly funded hospitals over the six-year study period.<\/p>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic led to large shortfalls in cataract surgery rates worldwide. To meet the growing need in Ontario, public funding was funneled into private, for-profit surgical centres to offset the need to charge patients for extra services.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to be innovative and open-minded in searching for the best approach to health care,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, despite an infusion of public funding into private for-profit surgical centres that was designed to cover facility overhead costs and enable access to care regardless of ability to pay, rates of cataract surgery at private for-profit centres has improved mainly for those with the highest socioeconomic status.\u201d<\/p>\n

Published in CMAJ, the researchers analyzed all cataract surgeries (935,729) in Ontario, Canada, between 2017 and 2022, and explored the effect of socioeconomic status on access to surgery at public hospitals versus private for-profit surgical centres. They looked at two time periods: the pre-funding change period up to February 2020, and the post-funding period from March 2020 to March 2022.<\/p>\n

Key findings include:<\/strong><\/p>\n