Eye patients get all aboard cataract bus
After a 7-year wait for basic eye surgery, Patrick Casey was one of the first patients to get the ‘Cataracts Express’ yesterday
A GROUP of pensioners waiting up to seven years for HSE cataract operations yesterday became the first to use a new express service.
They all took the 1,000km roundtrip from Bantry in Cork to Belfast, on what is being dubbed the Cataracts Express.
It is believed to be the first bus service of its kind specifically set up to get people with cataracts, who are on long waiting lists, operated on.
The group included a 72-year-old pensioner who has waited seven years for his cataracts to be treated.
Patrick Carey, from Tralee, last night told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘I jokingly asked a receptionist at a HSE hospital, where I was looking to be treated, if I needed to wait until I start using a white stick.
‘She didn’t laugh. Instead, she shrugged and said that I might as well, as that is the way things are going.’
The bus is the brainchild of independent TDs Michael Collins and Danny Healy Rae. But the inspiration for it was John Patrick Harrington.
The 90-year-old had to endure the 1,000km round-trip from Bantry to Belfast because he faced a four-year wait, despite going blind.
His son Jerry has since devoted much of his time to helping other pensioners get up to Belfast under a little-known HSE-funded treatment abroad scheme called Cross Border Directive on Healthcare (CBD).
UNTIL 2pm yesterday, Patrick Casey was going blind. Although the 72-year-old could see through his right eye, it was little to useless because of damage to it from cataracts.
And as he sat in the corner of the reception area of Kingsbridge Private Hospital in Belfast yesterday morning waiting to see a consultant, all his left eye could make out was blurred shapes. His one good eye also has cataracts and will go the way of his right eye if that too isn’t treated.
But if it wasn’t for a little known HSE-funded scheme that refunds treatment costs people pay up front for care they need abroad, that could happen sooner rather than later. This is because the retired long distance lorry driver from Tralee, Co. Kerry, has been waiting a staggering seven years just to see a consultant. He faced another few years waiting to get cataract operations he badly needs on both eyes. This is despite him being such an urgent case that his optician had warned the HSE that he was in danger of going blind. That same optician had also warned that Patrick was in increased danger of falling over and injuring himself.
The warnings would appear to have fallen on deaf ears, and because of the wait he has had to endure the sight in his right eye just gradually started to vanish. And although he has every reason to be angry, he — like the 12 other people who joined him on the so-called Cataracts Express — has taken the 1,000km round trip to Belfast in his stride. A mild-mannered man with a ready smile and a painfully polite way about him, you can tell he was never one for strong views or even an opinion about politics one way or the other.
His experience on an outpatients’ waiting list has changed that.
‘It’s maddening to have to travel up to Belfast to get seen,’ Patrick said as he waited patiently for his name to be called. ‘But this is the way things have gone in this country.
‘This is no country for old men or women anymore. Once you reach the age of 60, you are old news and you are surplus to requirement.
‘And if you have cataracts, most will face a stark reality about their debilitating predicament — it’s Belfast or blind.’
He pointed out that his grandfather had his own cataracts removed. ‘Back in 1968, he had his cataracts done in Tralee,’ he said. ‘He was about the same age as myself. All he had to do was contact the local surgeon and he got the operations done in a matter of days or weeks.
‘It’s not exactly space age technology we are talking about here.’ ‘I jokingly asked a receptionist at a HSE hospital where I was looking to be treated if I needed to wait until I start using a white stick before I get treated.
‘She didn’t laugh. Instead she shrugged and said that I might as well as that is the way things are going. There is something very badly wrong with the system.’
LAST night, after he came out of surgery, he was so excited about having been treated at last, that he was almost in tears.’ It’s so fantastic,’ he gushed.
‘I am just so happy. It means a whole new lease of life for me.’
His experience before the operation is shared with almost all of those who travelled up by bus on Saturday to be treated in Belfast on what has been dubbed the Cataracts Bus.
Sick and tired of waiting around for years just to see a consultant, they all opted instead to use the Cross Border Directive on Healthcare. Until only a few months ago, it was a virtually unheard of way of getting the cost of your care in a different country refunded back to you. Although treatment is in a private hospital, the cataract operations being offered at Kingsbridge Private Hospital are at least half the cost being charged at a number of private hospitals here.
One woman was told both her cataracts would cost a combined €9,000 to do. But when she pointed out that Kingsbridge could do them for €1,600, they slashed the price by €1,000 straightaway. Other hospitals are charging around €3,000 per eye.
The actual Killarney-based Jimmy O’Callaghan bus Patrick and his fellow patients travelled up on, and which is believed to be unique in Europe, is the brainchild of independent TDs Michael Collins and Danny Healy-Rae. And while they paid for the cost of operating it for the weekend, the inspiration for it in the first place is John Patrick Harrington.
He is the 90-year-old who had to endure the 1,000km round trip from Bantry to Belfast because he faced a four-year wait despite going blind.
His story, which first appeared in Cork’s Southern Star, was picked up by the Irish Daily Mail before it featured on various RTÉ radio and TV programmes.
Mr Harrington, whose son Jerry has now thrown his time behind helping other pensioners get up to Belfast, first heard about the CBD scheme from his local TD, Michael Collins. The deputy and Mr Healy Rae have been at the forefront of a growing number of TDs helping their constituents get treated under the CBD scheme. Throughout the weekend, they were fielding calls from people asking about the CBD.
Indeed, hardly an hour passed without the shrill Nokia signature tune ringing out on Mr Healy-Rae’s ancient Nokia 6310. Deputy Healy Rae, who entertained passengers with some impromptu accordian playing, said: ‘I am glad that the trip finally got underway for these people. If it was wasn’t for the CBD scheme, these people would just have to wait and wait. Myself and Michael have raised waiting lists for cataracts patients so many times in the Dáil but we’ve just been getting nowhere.
‘I am calling for a really thorough investigation into — if not the abolishment of — the HSE because what is going on is just not satisfactory.’
He added: ‘To me, vulnerable and sick people are not being properly seen after in this country anymore.’
The establishment of the Cataracts Express is now the latest manifestation of what he and deputy Collins have started. After this weekend, two more are going up to Belfast in January, with another two planned in March. Between them, the deputies have at least 100 people who want to go to Belfast — all forming part of what is now turning out to be the most popular waiting list in town.
The big difference between their waiting list and the HSE’s waiting lists is that at least they can almost guarantee those who go on their waiting list will be treated within weeks — instead of years.
At present, up to 250 people a month go up north to Kingsbridge on their own steam. They go up for hips, knees and spinal surgery, as well as cataracts. John Lynch, a 77-year-old farmer from Bandon, Co. Cork, is, for example, not only getting cataracts removed from each of his eyes but is also getting his knee replaced. The father-of-three was on the Cataracts Express with his daughter Michelle. He has been waiting for a cataracts appointment for nearly three years and, like everybody else on the bus, had had enough of waiting.
The three times All-Ireland Coastal Rowing Champion told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘I’ve given up on the health service. I’ve worked hard all my life and paid all my taxes but when I needed the health service the most, I can’t get the treatment I need. I’m getting my eyes done in Belfast, and they’ll be doing my knee in March.’
The mixed dairy and dry stock farmer believes the weekend’s trip is the beginning of a bigger service.
‘I consider this Cataracts Express trip to be a historic journey,’ he said. ‘It is going to lead to many more people’s lives being improved.’
Of his own experience with bad eyesight, he said: ‘I drive very little and it is very tough when working on the farm to get around on the quad bike with very poor eyesight.’
He added: ‘I think we have been left down very badly by the government.’
Jerry Higgins, 89, agrees.
THE great-grandfather from Bishopstown, Co. Cork, has been waiting four years for his eyes to be operated on. Up until a few months ago, he was an active member of his local community. As well as being part of various local community groups, he was a key member of his local team of Meals on Wheels delivery drivers.
But after 22 years, he finally had to stop delivering meals because he could no longer drive or barely get around because his sight had deteriorated so much. It devastated him.
The retired clerk told the Mail: ‘Before this happened to me, I was doing Meals on Wheels and the sacristy and I was secretary of the residents association, and almost everything and anything.’
He, too, sees great significance in the weekend’s trip to Belfast. Indeed, more than a few times he said how humbled he was to be able to get on the first bus.
‘I think it is marvellous and I am proud to be one of the first on this run to Belfast. I was inspired to do this when I heard about John Patrick Harrington. I saw him on TV talking about how he couldn’t see on his way up to Belfast for the operation on his only good eye.
‘But when he later retraced his steps for a TV feature on his own trip, I couldn’t help but marvel at the way he could not only see the cows in the field
on the way up but spot which breed they were.’
After his own operation, he was like rest of them — over the moon. ‘I am so delighted to have had this done,’ he said. ‘I am so grateful to everyone who made this possible.’
He added: ‘My grandchild is just three weeks old and she is in Australia. I would love to go over to Australia to see her when I get my eyes finished and settled.’
Kingsbridge CEO Mark Regan is understandably delighted by what is going on. Indeed, he now has a dedicated sales team that regularly drives down south to encourage people to use his hospital for operations under the CBD scheme. He, of anybody, knows it’s worth it. ‘Anecdotally, off the top of my head, we would have been seeing about 10 or 15 people from the South a month this time last year,’ he said.
‘But now, that figure is up to about 250 a month coming through this year, probably fuelled by the media and GP satisfaction and the realisation that this scheme does actually work. We don’t just get people coming to be operated on, they also come for a consultation and they are delighted to get seen quickly. And not all of them even bother to claim their money back from the HSE.’
AS to the future? By the sounds of things it is assured for many months to come. And support for the CBD scheme has come from some unlikely corners. They include Leo Varadkar, who has repeatedly reminded the Dáil about the scheme and that it is actually funded by the HSE.
In October, deputy Collins had demanded the Taoiseach explain how it was acceptable for 90-yearold John Patrick Harrington to have to endure such a long trip to get his cataracts done.
And he asked if this was yet another example of how the health service was not only failing in its job to care for people but also failing the elderly people in the country.
Deputy Varadkar in reply said he was sorry Mr Harrington had had to travel so far to get treatment but he would encourage anybody else in his position to do the same. ‘I am very sorry to hear that that gentleman had to wait so long for his cataract operation,’ he told deputy Collins.
‘I am pleased though he was able to avail of the Cross Border Directive on Healthcare. That does mean his healthcare was funded by the HSE, by the Irish taxpayer.
‘I would like to see more people consider it at least as an option.’
Deputy Collins is all too aware how many people are now turning to the CBD scheme, demand for which has shot up more than 500% in just two years as costs involved have gone up by more than 1000%.
The HSE has previously warned the scheme — the Cross Border Directive on Healthcare (CBD) — could have serious implications for its budget. And that was in 2015, when just 150 people were reimbursed for treatment on the CBD and it had to reimburse those patients a total of €542,106. But 1,025 people were reimbursed in 2016 and 901 had been reimbursed up until October this year so far.
And that number is only set to get even higher, as more than 100 patients a day see their life-enhancing hospital procedures called off due to chaos in the health service. An average of 3,400 elective procedures are cancelled every month, as a record 686,997 people languish on some form of waiting list.
And if the relationship between ‘prior authorisation’ figures and reimbursements are anything to go by, the number of people being reimbursed in 2017 under the CBD could far surpass the figure for 2016. Then, there were 325 ‘prior authorisations’, which are generally required from the HSE before for all inpatient procedures abroad under the CBD. This year there were 1,016 ‘prior authorisations’ up until October.
In addition, the amount of money reimbursed has more than doubled what the HSE paid out last year.
In 2016, it reimbursed patients a total of €1,447,698, while it has paid out €3,210,797 this year so far.
‘We have between 70 and just over 100 people at least who want to go up,’ deputy Michael Collins said. ‘As a result we have easily got enough people to fill a bus every two weeks from now until the foreseeable future.
‘We will keep doing this until the HSE and the government see sense and do something about the situation with waiting lists.’