Pensioners in eight-hour bus journey to Belfast for sight-saving cataract surgery
ELDERLY cataract patients languishing on public waiting lists have to travel by bus to Belfast for crucial surgery to save their sight.
With thousands of elderly people forced to wait for over a year and longer for cataract-removal surgery, 12 patients from Cork and Kerry made the eight-hour return trip to attend the Kingsbridge Hospital in Belfast yesterday.
More than 8,500 people across Ireland are waiting for cataract surgery.
The condition is a clouding of the lens in the eye that affects vision.
Waiting lists for the surgery are worst in the Cork and Kerry regions of the country.
Of the 30,792 waiting for eye treatment up to September last year, almost half, 14,352, were from those two counties.
The figure, which includes 8,161 people waiting for more than a year, is more than four times the number of people waiting for eye treatment in Dublin.
Yesterday’s bus service was arranged by Kerry Independent TD Danny Healy-Rae and West Cork TD Michael Collins.
“Their procedures will be carried out on Sunday morning and they will be returning home later on Sunday evening and we are hopeful that all these patients will enjoy a better Christmas this year,” Danny Healy-Rae said.
Despite the requirement for early intervention, those at risk of going blind as a result of the condition have been quoted waiting times of up to four years for an operation.
The situation has led junior health minister Jim Daly
to encourage people on waiting lists to use an EU scheme that allows them to be treated abroad.
Last month, he issued advice on how to access the Cross Border Directive in a detailed booklet for his West Cork constituents.
He offered the use of his constituency office staff to assist HSE patients ‘in getting a speedy appointment without the wait’.
The scheme is administered by the HSE, which reimburses the cost of the treatment within five weeks following its payment by the patient. Concerns about waiting times for eye operations has grown in recent months, amid rising public waiting list numbers.
Recently, a 90-year-old man made the trip from west Cork to Belfast after being told he would need to wait four years for the operation.
John Patrick Harrington, from Bantry, is the primary carer for his wife who is blind.
His son Gerry contacted Cork University Hospital to raise concerns about his father’s worsening eyesight.
Fearing his father would go blind waiting, Mr Harrington made the decision to make the trip to Kingsbridge Hospital.
The hospital’s CEO Mark Regan confirmed the number of people coming to the hospital in Belfast from the Republic for cataract operations was rising.
Speaking last month, David Keegan, a Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Mater Hospital in Dublin, said it is “scandalous” that cataract patients can be waiting up to four years for surgery in a First World country.
“The average time is really between six and 12 months, depending on which part of the country you’re in, but in certain circumstances it extends beyond that.
“Unfortunately in my own unit we do have some people who are waiting 18-24 months for surgery...at the Mater Hospital.
“In some parts of the country, that’s up to four years, which is scandalous in any jurisdiction, but particularly a First World country like Ireland.”
Mr Keegan said private patients at the Mater could be seen within a month and get surgery within two months.
He said he felt strongly that there should be an equal access to the public health system on a fair and equal basis.
If someone comes into the public system via a private consultant, they should go on a common waiting list, he added.
The most common symptoms of a cataract are cloudy or blurry vision, colours seem faded, or sunlight may appear too bright.
Double vision, multiple images in one eye, or poor night vision are also possible symptoms of the condition.