Category: Clinic Updates

We would like all patients to be aware that we will be closed over the holidays. The office will be closed from:

Monday, December 23, 2024 until Monday, January 6, 2025

Phones messages and faxes will not be monitored during this time so please do not call with urgent requests as messages will not be returned until we re-open on Monday, January 6, 2025. Dr. Curts will also be unreachable during the break.

If you have an eye emergency during this time, please see your Optometrist or proceed to your nearest Emergency Department where the on call Ophthalmologist will see you.

Wishing everyone all the best for the holiday season and looking forward to seeing you in 2025!

Dr. Curts & Staff

We have begun calling patients seen for their consultation in November 2023. This means that if you haven’t had a phone call from us and we saw you for cataract consult in October 2023 or earlier, then make sure that we have an up-to-date phone number to reach you.

For patients needing general anesthetic (this is rare and patients generally know if they do) then we are now hoping for late October (there was some talk about possibly in Sept, but that unfortunately did not happen).

After a quiet month in August due to the summer holidays and shut-downs, the number of surgery spots we now have available has increased. Our wait list is going to shrink quickly from here on out.

At this time we ask that you do not call or show up at the office asking about updates unless your cataract consult was in October 2023 or earlier.

Since our return in late May we have done 122 cataract surgeries. For the next couple of weeks though we have no ORs due to hospital summer shutdowns. The second half of August still has about 20 spots left at Meaford hospital which we are hoping to have filled soon. We expect to find out our September/October schedules in the coming weeks so that we can resume booking patients at Owen Sound hospital.

Patients seen for cataract consultation in October 2023 are being called now to arrange surgery dates. Please be aware that all our Owen Sound hospital spots in July and August are fully booked. Because many of the extra OR blocks that we obtained have been in Meaford, we still have 29 spots available at the end of August at Meaford Hospital. We hope to be given our September OR spots soon and can then resume booking people in Owen Sound.

At this time we ask that you do not call or show up at the office asking about updates unless your cataract consult was in September 2023 or earlier.

As I type this Dr Curts has completed over 70 cataract surgeries since his return to the OR in late May. Most of our surgery time has been in Meaford so far so don’t be surprised if you are offered a Meaford spot when you are called. You DO NOT have to accept Meaford or Owen Sound, you can have your surgery at either location, but just be aware that you may have to wait a bit longer (at this point it is 1-3wks, depending on a few factors).

About 30% of our summer ORs have been extra ORs that we have managed to snap up from other surgeons who have decided not to use their OR time for one reason or another. We will continue to grab extra ORs when it is possible to fit them into our schedule.

I am currently calling patients who were seen for a cataract consultation in September 2023. If you have not heard from us and were seen in Aug 2023 or earlier you are welcome to call us and leave a message letting us know the best way to reach you. I will try to post regular updates about where we are on our list.

Generally speaking, your phone call will come based on when you saw Dr Curts for a consultation. The Ontario government has guidelines that surgeons are expected to follow when prioritizing patients for surgery. There are a few factors that might bump someone ahead by a month or two, but this is based on factors seen at the consultation.

We appreciate your patience with us as we try to get people through as quickly as possible. And we will do our best to keep things fair. We certainly can appreciate how frustrating it is to have your vision worsening without a solid date for improving it. The quality of cataract surgery in our area is excellent, but we have always been in need of more surgeons (which is true is most areas of medicine, but cataract surgery is no exception). Hopefully updates will have people still waiting to hear from us know where they are on our list.

At this time we ask that you do not call or show up at the office asking about updates unless your cataract consult was in August 2023 or earlier. What I’ve shared above is largely all that we can provide at this time.

Tuesday, June 4, 2024 – Dr. Curts has now resumed Cataract Surgeries. All patients will be contacted according to when they were seen for their consultation, unless extenuating circumstances were indicated by Dr. Curts. Please do not call the office or the hospital to request a timeline for surgery, you will be contacted as soon as a date can be offered to you.

Unless we are trying to fill a cancellation spot, patients will be provided a minimum of 2 weeks lead time on any cataract surgery spots offered. You will be offered surgery spots from what is available, so if you have a trip that you wish to go on this summer you will not be asked to change your plans and you will not lose your place in line. Dr. Curts is grabbing extra surgery blocks as they become available and we are doing our best to get to everyone who has been waiting.

Our new office location is 901 3rd Avenue East, Suite 202 still in Owen Sound. We are in the same building as Canada Post at the corner of 3rd Avenue East and 9th Street East. All appointments going forward will be at this office. Please do not attend our previous location. If you require directions or further assistance, please call the office.

We are very happy to be open again and we are slowly trying to catch up to all our patients needing to be seen. Please note that we are going to try to prioritize appointments based on urgency. For the interim we once again ask that you do not call us for an appointment unless you feel things are more urgent (it is CRITICAL that truly urgent issues must go to the Emergency Room to be seen in a timely manner).

Our office will be opening again at the end of the month. For now we ask that you do not call our office to book an appointment as we will be slowly reaching out to people to catch up on a large number of people needing medical procedures, assessments or follow-ups. We appreciate everyone’s patience during this period and we are thankful for the patience and support you have given us to this point. Thank you!