Job Action Update

Unfortunately, the time has come that we must, with heavy hearts, inform folks that we are ONLY seeing patients and providing services that are NOT OHIP-covered. Continued services include routine check-ups for those between the ages of 20 and 64 WITHOUT diabetes or other conditions, contact lens exams and fittings as well as glasses or other product purchases. Optometrists in Ontario are suffering loss daily due to the government’s ongoing neglect of our sector of your healthcare, and this is compounded further by the effects of COVID on us as a local business.

We’ve included two graphs in this email, which we feel together demonstrate our current predicament. The first graph below depicts how the government has not accounted for inflation over the past three decades, which has consequently steadily diminished the sustainability of the critical services we have barely managed to provide you with up until now.

And we remain the lowest across the country in governmental reimbursement for equivalent care, as displayed in the second graph below. Unlike in other provinces, Optometrists here have had to pay out-of-pocket to subsidize OHIP-covered eye exams, making it more difficult each year to practice with the high standard of care expected within our profession and from the public.

These are only some of the main points because we know that everyone leads busy lives, but if you have more specific questions regarding your eye health or how this job action affects you, or would like to be placed on our priority list to be called as soon as our legislative goals have been met, please let us know. For those who are typically in need of regular visits or urgent care, please rest assured that you will be taken care of.

We hope that you will support and stand beside us in our fight for survival in our community because this is what we love and are trained to do…and we need each other.

Please go to saveeyecare.ca to show your continued support