'Building for the future': New eye clinics expand service at Misericordia eye centre

Manitoba health officials are celebrating a new chapter for eye care in our province, as two new eye clinics opened at the Misericordia Hospital's Eye Care Centre of Excellence Friday.

The two clinics offer very specialized eye care services and are expected to process more than 7,000 eye appointments every year. The clinics expand both the centre's treatment options for children, as well as for those with neurological vision issues.

"These are very specialized physicians, we're very honored to have them joining us here now," said John Van der Zweep, head of ophthalmology at the centre. "With neuro-ophthalmology, our neurologist has trained in a full fellowship in neurology and then taken special training into disorders of the brain or the visual system.”

"With the pediatric ophthalmologist, again, they're already specialized ophthalmologists, who have done extra training to deal specifically with the issues of children," added Van der Zweep.

Van der Zweep says having all these specialists under one roof will be a boon for patients.

"When you have satellite clinics that are far apart, that don't have the hub, you lose that ability to have the patient have all of their care taken in one visit," he said. "But also to from an educational standpoint, the fact that we can have our training physicians present and have all of the sub-specialists present is a wealth of knowledge for us. So we're also building for the future with this clinic and training of future physicians."

Both clinics are already up and running and accepting appointments from patients across Manitoba. Van der Zweep says the centre also services people in northwestern Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Nunavut.