Pictured left to right: Dr. Carl Shen, Maria Harper, Christine Chamberlain, Dr. Savvas Chamberlain, Dr. Chryssa McAlister.
St. Mary’s General Hospital has launched a new retinal surgical program that will offer highly advanced vision services to Waterloo Region for the first time, thanks to a $1.5 million transformational gift from The Savvas Chamberlain Family Foundation.
Bringing this highly specialized service to our community eliminates the need for patients to travel to London, Hamilton or Toronto when they experience a retinal or eye care emergency.
“As home to the Regional Eye Program, the absence of a retinal surgical program was a long-recognized gap in eye care in our community,” says Dr. Chryssa McAlister, co-lead for St. Mary’s Regional Eye Program. “Time is of the essence to mitigate potential vision loss in patients with retinal detachments and other urgent vision-threatening conditions. Having to refer patients out of town often meant delays in treatment and extra time spent travelling both for surgery and post-surgical care. Bringing retinal surgery to our community allows us to restore vision and prevent vision loss in patients with retinal diseases,” she adds. "We are delighted to finally be able to offer this essential care close to home," says Dr. McAlister.
Funding has supported St. Mary’s to purchase specialized equipment and transform one of the hospital’s existing operating rooms into an advance care suite. Dr. Carl Shen, an ophthalmologist and retinal surgical specialist, joined the team and was instrumental in helping to set up the new program.
It is projected that 100 cases will be performed in the programs first year expanding to more than 300 in its second year. The addition of the retinal surgical program and specialist team will provide opportunities to support a variety of complex cases onsite and support complementary care for local patients in-office.
“Given the distance to any of these centres in London, Hamilton or Toronto, a patient’s access to timely care was unavailable in K-W,” says Dr. Savvas Chamberlain, President and Director of The Savvas Chamberlain Family Foundation. “Our Foundation has worked closely with St. Mary’s on this project for more than five years. This gift attempts to mitigate the issue of access by establishing a local retina program, ensuring immediate access to this specialized service is available in Waterloo Region.”
For nearly a century, St. Mary’s has provided compassionate care to our community serving over 1.4 residents locally and beyond each year. We are the second-largest acute care hospital in the St. Joseph’s Health System with a team of over 2,000 staff, physicians and volunteers dedicated to ensuring patients receive the highest-quality care possible.