UK: Thousands could lose their sight as NHS cuts cataract surgery by a quarter

Daily Mail UK ^ | 7/15/12 | James Chapman

[Jean S]

The eyesight of thousands of elderly people has been put in jeopardy as NHS trusts place harsh restrictions on cataract surgery.

Last year the number of operations being carried out on the Health Service fell by more than a quarter in some areas.

And more than half of the NHS trusts in England have imposed their own criteria for the surgery which are tougher than national guidelines, according to research by the Royal National Institute of Blind People.

MPs will hear today that, for many trusts, the number being treated for  cataracts fell dramatically despite an ageing population.

Labour health spokesman Andy Burnham, who will raise the figures in Parliament, said cutting back on cataract surgery was a ‘false economy’, as untreated patients are more likely to suffer falls or need social care.

Campaigners say elderly people are increasingly having to wait until their eyesight deteriorates to the point where they are no longer able to drive before they can have cataracts removed. Others are told they can have only one affected eye treated.

[MissesBush]

But this could NEVER happen here. Didn’t Obama promise if you like your eyesight,! under his plan you’ll be able to keep it?

[musicman]

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[FoxInSocks]

I've been reading stories here like this for years. I can't believe so many people are oblivious to the path of socialized medicine (and socialism in general). As if it can't happen here and we're going to do it right, because nobody was smart enough before. Enough to make one want to scream. In fact, many have been screaming, but the cries mostly fall upon buried and deaf ears.

[Venturer]

We old timers are a burden, and the younger generation is glad to see us go.

They haven’t realised yet that their turn is coming.

[DTogo]

Not the "woodchipper" but rather the crematorium to heat the public pools.

"Never was so much owed by so many to so few."

[The Antiyuppie]

This is the future, I’m afraid, unless we do something about it.

Having older people unable to drive also cuts down pollution, a lib twofer - they don’t go to work and pay taxes, therefore, not worth it.

We could wind up with a health care system MUCH worse than Soviet Russia. he Soviets actually had some good ideas, like entire hospitals dedicated to doing only one kind of thing, for example, heart surgery. Even if the doctors stank, eventually they would get good at it.

They also invented RK (radial keratonomy(sp)? as a cost-saving measure (no glasses!).

[doc1019]

Shades of Logan’s Run.

[musicman]

VERY strange!!...and VERY possible!!

[dorothy]

Having older people unable to drive also cuts down pollution

Nah. Any savings on driving pollution will be negated as the younger, friskier people sit helplessly in their idling cars waiting for us older folks to shuffle our slow, deliberate way across the road.

[muawiyah]

One of the med-techs who works with my opthamological surgeon worked in a Russian eye center ~ they were about 20 years ahead of the rest of the world ~ now they work here and they're still 20 years ahead.

Interesting guy.

[ElPaseo]

Coming soon to the US.

[Pining_4_TX]

What makes you think they will wait for us to cross the road?

[RetiredTexasVet]

Remember these are only the first steps of the Progressive end game. The end game consists of reducing the worlds population from 6 billion to 1 billion or less. At the top of the remaining 1 billion will be the super elite, super intelligent, progressives with the remainder as servants and slaves. How do you accomplish this: abortions, disrupt the food supplies, increase the cost and decrease the availability of energy, restrict medical access, crash the financial systems, institute wars, etc.

[BobL]

This is something that I’m somewhat familiar with. One effect if you wait too long for the surgery is that your brain essentially shuts off the bad eye - so you don’t even get your sight back with the new lens.

Cataracts is not something to play games with and if I lived in that wreck of a country I’d live in a smaller flat (as they call it) and put enough money in a savings account to be able to get it done myself - because most people will need it, if they live long enough.

[bert]

-——How do you accomplish this-——

For a case study, look to California. The process is in place there now. There is one problem yet to be worked out. That problem is the result of an un solvable philosophical dilemma.

The population is desirably decreasing as productive people and businesses leave but simultaneously growing as the invasion of undesirables from Mexico continues.

The influx exacerbates the fiscal imbalance that would not exist were it not for the influx.