Optometrists push to perform eye surgery in Alberta

[Eyecan]

Came across this on my feed:

https://www.surgerybysurgeons.com/

"In December 2020, the Alberta College of Optometrists (ACO) submitted a proposal to Alberta Health to expand its scope of services to allow optometrists to perform medical and surgical procedures for which they have no accredited training and no medical regulatory approval."

"Under a new proposal, optometrists would be allowed to perform surgical procedures based solely on completing less than 40 hours of training without ever having performed these procedures on a real patient."

There is further push for scope expansion into dermatology as well. Direct quote from the ACO website:

"The requested scope expansion includes authorization to perform minor laser treatments and superficial skin surgical procedures such as the removal of skin tags, warts and other surface lesions."

[Pakoon]

3 hours ago, Eyecan said:

Came across this on my feed:

https://www.surgerybysurgeons.com/

"In December 2020, the Alberta College of Optometrists (ACO) submitted a proposal to Alberta Health to expand its scope of services to allow optometrists to perform medical and surgical procedures for which they have no accredited training and no medical regulatory approval."

"Under a new proposal, optometrists would be allowed to perform surgical procedures based solely on completing less than 40 hours of training without ever having performed these procedures on a real patient."

There is further push for scope expansion into dermatology as well. Direct quote from the ACO website:

"The requested scope expansion includes authorization to perform minor laser treatments and superficial skin surgical procedures such as the removal of skin tags, warts and other surface lesions."

Interesting to see how they justify their expansion into dermatology, will they bill the provincial government or will it be through private pay? 

If it's private why would someone go to them when they could see a dermatologist the next morning through the cosmetic route. Interesting all around.

[Aetherus]

This is a very scary proposal that could really compromise patient care. The problem with the lasers they want to do is that the indications on when to do them and the post op follow up take a whole residency in Ophthalmology to master. The procedures themselves take practice to be proficient at. If they wanted to do surgery, they should have gone to medical school and matched to Ophthalmology.

With regards to the dermatology aspect, presumably they will be doing these procedures in the periocular region, similar to Oculoplastics (a subspecialty of Ophthalmology). Again the problem is that they do not have the training to determine if a lesion is cancerous/precancerous and when they should biopsy. 
 

This scope creep is truly terrifying for patient care…

[abcd1288]

Everyone wants to be a doctor but no one wants to lift those heavy books!