Aussie medics fly in to blitz eye surgery waiting list

A specialist medical team from Australia has been flown in to Northern Ireland to tackle eye surgery waiting lists, it was revealed today.

The surgeons, anaesthetists and specialist nurses from a private company will carry out a blitz of operations at the South Tyrone Hospital in Dungannon.

They have been hired by the Craigavon Hospital Trust to carry out cataract and other eye operations and expect to complete 200 by early December.

The team has been brought in because of Health Minister Shaun Woodward’s insistence that waiting lists – the longest in the UK – are driven down.

The minister said: “I am determined that we have a health service that puts patients first, a health service which is modern, a health service which cuts out unnecessary delay and bureaucracy.”

Mr Woodward added: “Anyone that has had to wait longer than six months for eye surgery in this region will now get treatment.

“It is only fair that if a hospital cannot deliver this service quickly enough then it is brought in from elsewhere, to ensure that patients get the necessary treatment.”

The team of Australian medics has been carrying out pre-operative assessments since Sunday and expects to begin surgery this weekend.

A spokeswoman for the Trust said bringing in the specialist team was “cost-effective”, adding: “We don’t have a blank cheque.”

She said the team had operated all over the world and had been recommended to them after doing a similar job in England.

The trust also plans a similar blitz in the new year for urology patients.

Last month a team of doctors was flown in from England to carry out a similar waiting list reduction blitz on eye patients in Omagh.