It is normal that most elderly people, who had cataract operations, will need laser surgery in a year or two to remove the misty build-up behind the lens that hinders vision. Although this is a minor, routine, ten minute surgery, the demand is high, due to ageing population and life-longevity, as well as poor management.
A family member needed such a surgery which was carried out in a local, recently built NHS hospital wing. It is a bright, well equipped building with friendly, efficient and caring staffs working under enormous pressure. Although this is a minor surgery, the patient has to be checked twice by nursing staffs before surgeon can operate. Understandably this creates a build-up of patients queuing up in the lounge.
There were some twenty patients before us in the waiting area and it took some four hours from registering to being discharged. Add two hours for travelling and it becomes very tiring day, especially for the elderly in poor health, as couple of patients were in their nineties and in wheel-chairs. I cannot but feel that such elderly patients should be given priority, although it is easier said than implemented, as patients were there for variety of reasons besides laser surgery.
It is time for our out of touch politicians living in their “Ivory Tower” to break status quo, study how NHS is funded and operated in Scandinavian countries, as well as France, Germany, Singapore and Japan where medical treatment is at its best, more or less available on demand.
Our long suffering public, as well as medical staffs deserve better, well-funded NHS. It is time for government to look at our ever bulging “Overseas Aid” budget, as well as defence spending when we are willing to spend £10 billion on a single “Aircraft Carrier” to defend our super rich NATO partners like Germany whose defence budget is a fraction of what we spend. It is time for us to stop playing “Robin Hood” overseas and “Shylock” at home!
Kumudini Valambia
By email
