COMMENT

The Mail applauds Jeremy Hunt. Each operation costs just £750. What a minuscule price to pay for restoring the gift of sight.

THIS paper is proud of its role in ending the cruel postcode lottery by which thousands of mainly elderly people were denied life-changing cataract operations until they were almost blind.

Over the past year we’ve highlighted how people with this debilitating condition have been steadily pushed to the back of the queue and their treatment severely rationed in an attempt to save money.

Meanwhile some £2billion a year is wasted on health tourism – and the NHS finds the cash to fund an expensive new drug which reduces the chances of a healthy person contracting HIV from unprotected sex.

Yesterday, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt paid tribute to the Mail’s Save Our Sight campaign, as he ordered hospitals to ensure that in future, all sufferers are offered eye surgery as soon as loss of vision affects their quality of life.

We applaud him. Each operation costs just £750. What a minuscule price to pay for restoring the gift of sight.