Patients within the Southern Trust area could be waiting up to two years for cataracts surgery, despite a target maximum wait time for the NHS treatment being set at 18 weeks.
The revelation came after Newry and Armagh MLA, Gareth Wilson asked the Minister for Health to detail the waiting times for both the Southern Trust and Belfast Trust areas.
According to the NHS website, the surgery is necessary to replace a cloudy lens in the eye with an artificial lens. The cloudy lens (cataracts) can cause blurry vision and loss of sight. It mainly affects older adults but can also affect children.
Surgery is the only way to get rid of cataracts and those living with the ailment can experience “reduced quality of life” and it can in fact lead to a “total loss of vision” if left untreated.
According to Practice Plus Group – an independent provider of private, insured and NHS healthcare – the maximum waiting time for the NHS cataracts treatment should be 18 weeks.
However, their website also stipulates that some patients living in Northern Ireland have experienced wait times of up to four years!
The Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt explained in response to the MLA’s question that the current waiting times within the Southern Trust area for cataract surgery are two years for routine.
Shockingly, the statistic is one year for urgent cases, according to the Minister. Far exceeding the 18 week maximum as stated by Practice Plus Group.
In the Belfast Trust area (BHSCT) there is three year wait for routine surgeries and, again, a one year wait for urgent cases.
The Minister did explain a means of increasing “productivity, efficiency and activity around low-complexity cataract cases” has been undertaken by his Department in delegating for the majority of cataract operations to be carried out within the “dedicated Cataract Day Procedure Centre (DPC) network”.
He said: “As such, only complex surgeries are now undertaken within Belfast Trust, the majority being delivered within the three regional Cataract DPCs”, with South Tyrone Hospital being one.
Of the DPC, Minister Nesbitt explained: “The network of three Cataract Day Procedure Centres was established in 2018/19 to manage lists regionally, to equalise and reduce waits across Northern Ireland and to avoid clinic and theatre short notice cancellations that may happen in larger more acute hospital settings due to emergencies.
“These measures have seen regional urgent surgical cataract waiting lists fall from over 3,700 in March 2021 to close to zero today.”
Yet despite the dramatic decrease in the number of patients waiting, the length of time for patients on that list remains startlingly high.
“There are currently 33 patients triaged as urgent waiting on complex BHSCT lists over one year,” said the Minister.
“Clinical and administrative teams at BHSCT are establishing if any of these 33 patients could now be safely managed at a DPC and are attempting to bring this number waiting over one year to zero.”
The Southern Trust list has nine patients triaged as urgent waiting more than one year on the cataract surgical waiting list.
Positively, the Minister said this “should reduce to zero within this financial year”.
