Public patients forced to go to Northern Ireland and elsewhere in the EU for routine procedures are waiting months to be reimbursed by the HSE.

Some public patients in West Cork are having to wait up to five years for cataract surgery, according to a new survey from the Association of Optometrists Ireland.

A radical overhaul of eye care services is needed to tackle massive waiting lists, with more than 50,000 currently on outpatient and inpatient lists.

Patients in West Cork can wait five years for cataract surgery, with the average waiting time nationwide at 28 months, according to a survey by optometrists.

Some 50,000 people were on waiting lists for eye procedures at the end of last year, many of them for 18 months.

Almost 12,500 people are on hospital waiting lists for eye procedures – while another 38,000 are waiting for outpatient appointments.

New figures from the Association of Optometrists (AOI) show almost 12,500 people were waiting for eye procedures at the end of August in Ireland.

Children with suspected vision problems are forced to wait almost four years for a crucial follow up test after having their eyes screened at school, it has emerged.

ENDA Kenny started his trip to the US this week with a tongue-lashing from a Boston cardinal and concluded it with the US Senate deriding the country as a tax haven.

THE number of people with sun-damaged eyes is on the increase because many are wearing colour-tinted glasses that offer little protection.

ARREST the thief of sight with regular eye tests, Irish opticians are urging in a bid to reduce the number of people with permanent vision loss caused by glaucoma.

MEDICAL card holders, including vulnerable elderly people, in North Cork are not being given replacement glasses to which they are entitled.