The clarity Dr Phil Larkin has provided in our front page article regarding eye surgery waiting times is appreciated.
It’s hypocritical for the NSW Opposition to slam waiting times in public hospitals when it introduced the 12-month wait for cataract surgery that causes so many Eurobodalla patients grief.
However, the ball is well and truly now in the current NSW Government’s court.
If an eye surgeon is ready, willing and able to remove cataracts from the eyes of our residents, please remove the funding barrier that prevents them seeing clearly.
Delaying this simple operation means a great deal to our residents, particularly the elderly.
Being unable to see clearly can mean the difference between a fulfilling active life and reluctant dependence.
If you fall because you do not see an obstacle, you may break your hip and start a downward spiral to nursing home residency.
The bureaucratic obstinacy that began under the previous government and has been maintained under the current one, where a patient with two cataracts cannot book the second eye for surgery until the first eye is treated, is blinding in its lack of compassion.
Both eyes can’t be treated on the same day, but the patient should not be sent back to the bottom of a 10-month list.
More than 22 per cent of our shire’s residents are aged 65 years and over, compared to a national average of about 13 per cent.
Those people deserve to see a brighter old age.