The suite cost $1.3 million and the Friends of the Grand Falls Hospital Foundation contributed $65,000 — making the private clinic a bitter pill.

"We recognize it meets a need, no question, but a significant amount of money was spent by both Vitalité and our foundation to set up the one in Grand Falls, which will be orphaned," said Luc Levesque, president of the foundation.

"It gets a bit frustrating when we put in efforts to raise funds in the community and then see them — I don't want to say squandered — badly used, or used for a very short time."

He said there's anecdotal evidence surgeries were already being cancelled in Grand Falls in anticipation of the private clinic, which opens July 8.

The Vitalité Health Network said in 2020 that the new Grand Falls space would allow all cataract surgeries in northwest New Brunswick to be centralized there, allowing 500 more procedures a year and freeing capacity in Edmundston for other surgeries.

 The surgical suite was put in place at the Grand Falls hospital in 2020. (Radio-Canada)

"Surgeons will have greater access to the surgical suite in Edmundston, which will in turn reduce surgical waiting times and give patients better access," then CEO Gilles Lanteigne said at the time.

This week, Vitalité said 1,300 people are on a waiting list for cataract surgery in the northwest, with 100 of them having been on the list for more than a year. 

Vitalité's vice-president of medical affairs Dr. Natalie Banville said this week the private clinic should lead to "a fast decrease of the wait times" for the entire region, like what happened in Bathurst after the opening of a similar clinic there in 2022.

Wait times there were reduced to six to eight weeks, she said.

In a statement Friday, Banville said Vitalité is aware of the concerns in Grand Falls.

"We are actively working with the medical staff to ensure that the space at the Grand Falls General Hospital will be utilized for the benefit of patients," she said.

"Specifically, our goal is to develop services that will maximize the use of this space."

Grand Falls Mayor Bertrand Beaulieu said he had heard those assurances but "we want to know what that service will be and when it will it begin. Is it a comparable service or is it a patch-up?" 

Beaulieu said he's worried the decision will make it harder for the foundation to persuade residents of the municipality to donate money to future projects.

Grand Falls Mayor Bertrand Beaulieu said the decision will make it harder for the foundation to fundraise on future projects. (Radio-Canada)

"The foundation already has difficulty convincing people to give money to the foundation," he said.

"This is going to be another event that will make it more difficult to raise money in the community. The foundation is doing a great job to raise money to help our hospital and this was a great project in which they invested. And now it's worth nothing." 

Levesque agreed.

"As a foundation, we were very happy to help them out, but it gets hard to explain in the community that you spend the money and then the service is no longer there," he said.

"I am concerned that longer term, it will impact us. People count on their funding being used to improve their health care, and when that seems to go sideways, how can it not impact that?"

The two ophthalmologists opening the new clinic, who have been performing cataract surgeries in Grand Falls, did not respond to a voicemail left at their office.

Victoria-La Vallée Liberal MLA Chuck Chiasson said there was no reason to reduce or eliminate the use of the surgical suite in Grand Falls.

"It had the capacity to do the same thing that this private clinic will be doing," he said.

Levesque said the foundation is looking at whether it can recoup some of the $65,000 it contributed to the suite. 

"This is something that I'm discussing with our executive," he said.

"We're examining — are there ways we can put conditions on our funding?"

Private cataract surgery clinics have also opened in Miramichi and Fredericton in the last two years under the auspices of the Horizon Health Network.