Shocking News on Cataract Surgery

Flame Health are shocked to hear that more than half of PCTs are denying patients access to cataract surgery unless their visual acuity falls below a certain level.
Optical bodies have issued a joint warning expressing their concern over this.
President of the College of Ophthalmologists, Professor Harminder Dua, said: “We strongly advise that it is clinically unsound to determine access to cataract surgery on the basis of visual acuity alone.”
These restrictions have continued despite a pledge by Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, to ban by March this year “caps on operations that do not take into account the healthcare needs of individual patients”.
Additionally, it has been reported that several PCTs are telling patients suffering from cataracts in both eyes that they will only treat one, despite extensive research favouring treatment for both.
This is sad news and Flame Health hope that something gets sorted on this matter soon.