Patients facing a five-year wait for cataract ops

SOME patients are now waiting five years to have a cataract operation to allow them to see properly, optometrists have warned.

There are 41,600 public patients with various eye problems on the outpatient waiting list to see an eye specialist.

“We have a growing aged population,” warned Sean McCrave, chief executive of the Association of Optometrists.

The crisis in eyecare is only one specialty with huge waiting lists. It emerged last week that nationally more than 514,000 people are on some form of outpatient list to see a specialist.

The National Treatment Purchase Fund is to fund some outpatient appointments which will include holding clinics at the weekends and out of hours. However, this will only cover some specialties and is unlikely to make much of a dent in the massive queue.

Around €3m has been allocated to paying for outpatient appointments but the bulk of the €50m National Treatment Purchase Fund has gone on inpatient and day-case surgery.

Fianna Fáil is expected to call for an increase in the National Treatment Purchase Fund allocation in next month’s Budget to make inroads into the outpatient and inpatient lists.

In its pre-Budget submission, the Association of Optometrists said 16,100 of the public patients on the outpatient lists to see an eye specialist were waiting more than a year.

There are another 9,600 people, many with serious vision problems, waiting longer than 18 months.

Mr McCrave said there is an over-reliance on hospital ophthalmology departments when more use could be made of community optometrists.

It should be possible to arrange more follow-up appointments for patients who have had surgery with optometrists. This scheme is already in place in Sligo and it could be rolled out nationally.

In its submission, the optometrists’ body also called for the development and roll-out of an optometrist-led national eyecare programme for under 16 year olds to address major waiting times, gaps and inconsistencies in children’s services.

There is also a need for HSE payments to be placed on parity with PRSI.

The National Treatment Purchase Fund said a total of 14,000 patients on the waiting list for surgery have accepted offers of paid-for treatment this year. But more than 74,000 are still on hospital waiting lists across the country.