100 undergo weekend eye surgery

THE Ministry of Health’s cataract programme continued over the weekend with close to 100 surgeries being done at Port-of-Spain and San Fernando Ge-neral Hospitals. While the backlog of persons waiting was initially estimated to be 3,000, Health Minister John Rahael told reporters after visiting patients at Port-of-Spain General Hos-pital yesterday that after the lists at the hospitals were verified the number was actually close to 2000. “As you sanitise the list you find some of the patients may have had their surgery done privately  and in some cases may have passed away depending on the type of surgery we are referring to, certainly for cataracts. Many of the patients for cataract surgery are senior citizens.”

Approximately 28 surgeries were done at PoSGH on Saturday, and a further 34 yesterday while at SFGH more than 30 were done. The Ophthalmolo-gical Society of TT is being paid to clear the backlog of cataract cases on behalf of the Health Ministry, and 150 have already been done since the programme began last month. Rahael said every effort is being made to eliminate the list by the end of this year. Patients receiving surgery were thankful the wait was over. The waiting time varied from patient to patient with some waiting a few months while others were waiting for years. Christiana Sirju, 76, had one cataract removed from her right eye one year ago at PoSGH and said  her appointment to remove the other cataract had been postponed three times. “I thank the Lord and doctors and nurses,” she said after having surgery. Sirju said although she is 76, she still had “a few more years” of living and was glad to have restored vision in both eyes.

Francis Chan, 64, has been on the waiting list since 1994. Asked why this happened, he provided several reasons: “No nurse was available, then the doctors were on strike. “Everything happened suddenly, afterwards the nurses strike again, a couple years ago the nurses were on go slow, only today I get relief.” Chan said the wait was frustrating, “time for it to be done” he told Newsday.