Cataract surgery

tamara25

I’m on the waiting list since last year for cataract surgery. It really takes its toll on me daily in how it affects me. My distance vision is affected, things are t hazy. And at work looking at my computer & typing is a lot more difficult as my close up vision is more blurry. I know there is a long waiting list but I wonder is there any other options available to me? I am going to see my gp on Wednesday to see if sending in another letter on my behalf to consultant might speed things up for me? I’m in Galway

Diziet

Ask your GP about getting it done in the North under the cross border health care initiative
https://www2.hse.ie/services/cross-border-directive/about-the-cross-border-directive.html

Daisies

Diziet wrote: »

Ask your GP about getting it done in the North under the cross border health care initiative
https://www2.hse.ie/services/cross-border-directive/about-the-cross-border-directive.html

This. If you can get a loan to front the costs up front the HSE will reimburse you.

tamara25

Does anyone know if cataract surgery has resumed in hospitals yet? I am struggling so much with my cataracts.. work is so difficult for me, driving is harder also. I was told by my local td’s office that people who got their surgery done up in the north are waiting a very long time to be refunded by the hse. It’s very difficult :-(

Diziet

Ring the local hospital's ophthalmology department and check. They should have restarted. They may be able to tell yo about how long you have to wait, too. If things have got significantly worse, you should talk to your GP about pushing the referral.

Also, if you want to avail of having surgery in the North, could you get a credit union loan and go ahead with it? It *will* get refunded.

Best of luck.

tamara25

Thanks for your reply. I rang the hospital about 2 weeks ago & was told cataract surgery hasn’t resumed yet. If they start up soon again I have about 6 months to wait. It costs about 3000 per eye to have the surgery done in the north. I couldn’t afford that amount of a loan at the moment. I might ring the hospital again later today, not expecting to hear good news/anything different though...