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Update: What turtle trackers discovered PAGE 3
Delivery 604-942-3081 • Wednesday, November 10, 2010
South and Central square off PAGE 23
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On the ledge New heights:
Tom and Susana Wong will apparently go just about anywhere with their Burnaby NOW – including to the edge of a mountain. They took this stunning Paper Postcards shot in Huangshan during a recent three-week trip to China. Huangshan is located in the southern Anhui province and is one of the most famous mountains in China. It’s a frequent subject of traditional Chinese paintings and literature and today is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Contributed/burnaby now
Eye surgeons see operations cancelled Janaya Fuller-Evans
staff reporter
The Fraser Health Authority has cut the amount of elective surgeries some B.C. ophthalmologists are permitted to perform on a daily basis. The cancellations began on Oct. 29, and have affected surgeries at Burnaby General Hospital and Ridge Meadows Hospital in Maple Ridge.
The health authority said it has cancelled the scheduled elective surgeries of specific surgeons in response to on-call coverage issues mandated by their contract. The cancellations were made on a surgeon-by-surgeon basis to deal with specific on-call issues, according to David Plug, a Fraser Health media relations advisor. But Dr. Patrick Saunders, an ophthalmologist at Burnaby Hospital, said it has affected more than just a handful of surger-
ies, as suggested by Fraser Health. On Wednesday, Nov. 3 Dr. Saunders confirmed that the ophthalmologists at Burnaby Hospital were contacted last week and told that half of each doctor’s elective surgeries were cancelled by the health authority. One ophthalmologist, Dr. Arthur Pratt, was given his full slate back at the last minute. “We don’t know why,” Dr. Saunders
said. In his department, ophthalmologists each had five to 10 surgeries cancelled on Friday, Oct. 29 and Monday, Nov. 1, he said. When asked how many of the ophthalmologists were affected, he said, “All of them.” B.C. ophthalmologists and Fraser Health Eye surgeries Page 8