Northwestern Ont. patients lose access to eye care injections in Kenora, must travel to Winnipeg

For years, seniors in northwestern Ontario didn’t have to make the long, sometimes treacherous, drive to Winnipeg to protect their eyesight.

Since 2017, Winnipeg-based ophthalmologist Dr. Frank Stockl has travelled to Kenora every few weeks to provide injections that prevent vision loss from macular degeneration. His visits meant that up to 150 patients from Red Lake, Dryden, Fort Frances, Sioux Lookout and Kenora could get treatment close to home.

But last month, those visits stopped.

Community Advocate Carolyn Hudson said a dispute over how Stockl’s work is funded means patients are once again left with little choice but to arrange rides, pay out of pocket or risk losing their vision. She said the shutdown has left dozens of vulnerable patients in a state of limbo.

“I got the call from a woman whose mother was going to be affected by this, and the excruciating thing for her was that she wouldn’t be able to travel. So even if she wouldn’t be able to receive the injections at all, that was going to really affect her vision,” Hudson said.

She added that another woman’s husband, who was undergoing cancer treatment, could not travel either. 

“That was a second person who was looking potentially at their loss of vision because of the changes in the injections for macular degeneration,” she explained.

Hudson has spent the past month pressing Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford for answers that didn’t come. She believes the solution is straightforward.

“To me, when I look closely at the situation, it looks like all it would take would be for Minister Rickford to arrange for the Ministry of Health to allow Stockl to receive the specialist funding that other specialists receive, which would make it then worth his while, you know, profitable for him to come and provide the treatments locally,” she said.

‘This is not a billing issue’

Rickford, who is also Ontario’s Minister of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations Economic Development as well as the Minister Responsible for Ring of Fire Economic and Community Partnerships, said his office has been pressing the Ministry of Health for solutions. But he disputed the idea that the problem lies with how Ontario pays ophthalmologists.

“First of all, let me say this is not a billing issue. It’s very unfortunate that this doctor has decided to withdraw his services from northwestern Ontario. The kind of service he provides is very important. It’s unique and hard to come by, especially in northwestern Ontario,” Rickford said in an interview with CBC.

“Ophthalmologists are among the highest-paid doctors in the province, anywhere from $7,000 to $15,000 a day in billings, between $35,000 and $75,000 in one week. So, billing is not the issue. It’s my understanding from what little communication we receive from this particular physician that his expenses are at issue,” he said.

Rickford said his office is exploring its options. 

“Our solution and the approach that we’re taking is, not just around this particular doctor and what would fit his sense of how he can continue to offer the service in Kenora, but how we could attract ophthalmologists with this specialty and this skill in Fort Frances and Dryden,” Rickford said.

CBC has reached out to Stockl for comment, but has not yet heard back. 

A winter of ‘bad roads, icy storms’

For 91-year-old Kenora resident Ruth Bowiec, if a solution isn’t found, she would have to decide whether to go back to long and costly trips to Winnipeg.

Before Stockl began offering injections in Kenora in 2017, Bowiec said she relied on the Greyhound bus until the service shut down. Then she resorted to paying private drivers.

“I advertised for someone to drive me, and luckily I got a wonderful driver,” she explained. “It was $200 plus lunch. And I was happy to pay the $200 to get anything to save my eyesight.”

When Stockl began offering injections in Kenora, she said the relief in the community was enormous.

“You can’t really drive right after the injections for two or three hours. So I could actually walk to the clinic. It was so close,” Bowiec said.

Now her next appointment is in December in Winnipeg.

“That’s December in Kenora and Winnipeg with bad roads, icy storms sometimes. People in the Greater Toronto Area don’t have to put up with what we have to put up with,” Bowiec said.

She questions, “Is the government saving any money by taking this away from us when they’ve got to pay 136 to 140 patients for travel?”

For Hudson, Bowiec and dozens of other seniors, solutions can’t come soon enough. Both Hudson and Bowiec say they’ll keep pressing until services are restored in Kenora.

“People are really upset. All of us are kind of older and going blind,” Bowiec said.