Cataract treatment - can it really be true?

Beenie

This sounds a policy which could be viewed as racist.

Asian and African medics are unlikely to speak Welsh, so you are restricting the job opportunities to white people only.

brook2jack

It is nothing to do with Welsh speaking and everything to do with finances. Betsi cadwalladr in North Wales is the largest health authority in Europe. It has been in special measures for at least the last three years and in financial trouble longer than that.
Hip replacements are an eighteen month to four year waiting list, cataracts eighteen months to two years for the first and a year or more for the second.

Yes health boards ask for Welsh speaking but the vast majority of health professionals do not speak Welsh.

It is difficult to recruit in Wales because pay,conditions,facilities are worse than in England and in eg North Wales places like Anglesey are remote from anywhere and it is difficult to get young people to move there.

Death rates in North Wales hospitals are the worst in the UK , bed occupancy rates sky high and waits for a and e worse than the rest of the UK.

But all is good because we have vote winning free prescriptions!

kirtondm

Their is no reason she can't drive when one eye has been done as long as she mights the visual standards. Assuming only a private car you only need one eye.

Pretty sure I would have heard about this if it were true.

Their is no specific 'time' between eyes it is down to does the 2nd eye need doing and if so how urgently + local trust policies and waiting lists.

I worked briefly in Carmarthenshire and was never required to speak Welsh ( Most of the patients even the very elderly ones were bilingual )

Around here the suspended all rotuine funding of catarct surgery for 612 last year all it did was increase the waiting list

pollypenny

brook2jack wrote: »

It is nothing to do with Welsh speaking and everything to do with finances. Betsi cadwalladr in North Wales is the largest health authority in Europe. It has been in special measures for at least the last three years and in financial trouble longer than that.
Hip replacements are an eighteen month to four year waiting list, cataracts eighteen months to two years for the first and a year or more for the second.

Yes health boards ask for Welsh speaking but the vast majority of health professionals do not speak Welsh.

It is difficult to recruit in Wales because pay,conditions,facilities are worse than in England and in eg North Wales places like Anglesey are remote from anywhere and it is difficult to get young people to move there.

Death rates in North Wales hospitals are the worst in the UK , bed occupancy rates sky high and waits for a and e worse than the rest of the UK.

But all is good because we have vote winning free prescriptions!

Thank you, brook2jack.

Lots of hearsay from money, who moved to West Wales for its low house prices, I believe. Carmarthen is a Welsh first language area. Further along, Withybush Hospital has real recruitment problems probably because it is the back of beyond.

As for the science teacher story - look further, he is not telling the whole story, I suspect.

GlasweJen

No idea about welsh hospital policies but if you asked a Scottish hospital to operate on a second eye within 4 weeks youd be laughed out of the room! Youre still on post operative drops for 6 weeks after your first eye, then you need your first post op refraction, then you go back on the 13 week waiting list.

Doshwaster

My mum (82 yr old) needs a cataract operation. She was given an estimate of 9 months wait on the NHS. When we asked about going private she was told it could be done in 2 weeks time for £2500. In terms of improving her quality of life that seems to be a cheap price to pay.

brook2jack

If you want to know about the problems in the Welsh health service two things

Ex Betsi Cadwalladr health board executive moved to England after she developed cancer as her treatment would not be funded in Wales https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/former-betsi-cadwaladr-boss-mary-9408830

Read this on how deficits in many Welsh boards are getting larger , despite some being in special measures already http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-41586132

If you really want to get depressed read the links here on death rates and failure to control infection rates http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-42905335

Education is in equally dire straits .

borkid

Doshwaster wrote: »

My mum (82 yr old) needs a cataract operation. She was given an estimate of 9 months wait on the NHS. When we asked about going private she was told it could be done in 2 weeks time for £2500. In terms of improving her quality of life that seems to be a cheap price to pay.

That might depend on where you live. I was seen last February by an optician who referred me for cataract surgery. Was phoned and given a choice of hospitals, middle/ end of March saw a specialist then operated on early May so just under 3 months. Follow up was done by my optician.

Doshwaster

borkid wrote: »

That might depend on where you live. I was seen last February by an optician who referred me for cataract surgery. Was phoned and given a choice of hospitals, middle/ end of March saw a specialist then operated on early May so just under 3 months. Follow up was done by my optician.

I'm sure it does depend on where you live. If it had been 3 months then we would have probably accepted it but when faced with not being able to enjoy the summer - when who knows how many summers she has left to enjoy - it was an easy decision to make.

teddysmum

kirtondm wrote: »

Their is no reason she can't drive when one eye has been done as long as she mights the visual standards. Assuming only a private car you only need one eye.

Quite true. A former neighbour lost the sight of one eye after an accident and was allowed to drive his own car, but lost his HGV licence.