Islander felt dumped waiting for cataract surgery

Susan Adam said she found out in a letter that the off-island scheme was ending

Cataract patients in Guernsey have turned to off-island, private healthcare to get their surgeries done quicker.

Susan Adam had been waiting more than a year to get her operations before being invited to take part in an off-island treatment plan.

But after HSC decided to end the initiative before she had her second eye done, Mrs Adam said she was left feeling "dumped".

Deputy Marc Leadbeater, Vice-President of Health and Social Care (HSC), apologised for anyone feeling that way and said that generally feedback had been positive.

Mrs Adam had one eye successfully operated on in the UK though Newmedica.

She did not get the second one booked in before receiving a letter to say she would now be handed back to the Medical Specialist Group, which is contracted to provide secondary healthcare for islanders.

"The aim was to have your surgery done in eight to 10 weeks," Mrs Adam said.

Instead of waiting, she decided to pay to stay with Newmedica for her second operation.

"You only have one set of eyes. I thought I'd go private and have it done with people I know, that I can trust and I was given an appointment there and then."

Phillip Pattimore decided he did not want to risk waiting to have his surgery done locally

Phillip Pattimore was told in November that he had an 18-month wait for his cataract surgery to be carried out locally.

He decided to have a private consultation in the UK.

Mr Pattimore said during it he was told his vision "didn't have 18 months" before it deteriorated too much for him to be able to drive.

"I retire in a couple month's time and I want to be able to do the bits and pieces I've been looking forward to," he said.

He is now due to get his surgery done in the UK in the next few weeks.

Improvements ahead

The States said the number of people waiting for an ophthalmology outpatient appointment had fallen from 751 in November to 580 at the end of February.

While the number of people waiting for surgery changed from 136 to 129 with the number of those told to expect a wait of a least a year went from 92 to 55.

Leadbeater said: "The Medical Specialist Group have employed another consultant now, and they will be up to capacity in August, which means things should be back to normal."