Opening of Cork eye care unit delayed as 106th 'cataract bus' travels to Belfast

They are waiting for the HSE to approve funding for an additional consultant ophthalmic surgeon post at the facility

Fine Gael TD Colm Burke, who sits on the SIVUH board, said: “The builders are finished, we are waiting for a final piece of equipment for one of the operating theatres, which is due to be delivered within the next few days, which means both theatres could be up and running by mid-January." Picture: Larry Cummins

The opening of a new regional eye care and surgical centre has been postponed because of a delay in funding for a new consultant post.

The two new operating theatres at the new regional ophthalmology unit which has been developed at the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH) in Cork city are now likely to lie idle until the HSE approves funding for an additional consultant ophthalmic surgeon post at the facility.

The news emerged on Friday as 24 people, many in their 80s, boarded the 106th ‘cataract bus’ to travel from Cork to Belfast for the routine surgery which the new unit has been designed to do.

Fine Gael TD Colm Burke, who sits on the SIVUH board, said the health minister must intervene and order the HSE to approve the funding so the unit can open. “We’ve made a major effort to sort this issue out, to deliver a long-term solution,” he said.

“The builders are finished, we are waiting for a final piece of equipment for one of the operating theatres, which is due to be delivered within the next few days, which means both theatres could be up and running by mid-January.

“We have everything in place but now it appears we are back to square one.” 

 Independent TD for Cork South-West, Michael Collins, who organises the ‘cataract bus’ service, also criticised the delay.

“We sent the 106th cataract bus off on Friday, with 24 people from West Cork, Kerry and beyond on board,” he said. 

Some of them, aged 83, 84, and 85, are unable for the journey but to be honest, they’ve been left with no choice. It’s Belfast or go blind.

“I have a list a mile long of people waiting three to five years for surgery, and a lot of people who are going blind waiting.

“And now, they’ve built a state-of-the-art facility in Cork city and can’t staff it – it kind of says it all really about what goes on with the HSE. It’s just not good enough.” 

Mr Collins organised the first 'cataract bus' in late 2017. Despite a pause in surgical procedures during Covid, he estimates that some 2,500 surgeries have been carried out in that time on people using the bus service.

The development of a regional department of ophthalmology was a key recommendation in the 2017 national clinical programme for ophthalmology, and in the reconfiguration of acute hospital services plan for Cork and Kerry.

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The SIVUH was chosen as the site for the regional eye care centre, with plans for the ophthalmology outpatients department (OPD) and eye casualty at Cork University Hospital (CUH) and the OPD from Mercy University Hospital (MUH) to transfer to the new ophthalmology OPD and eye casualty building at SIVUH.

The new facility includes two operating theatres, anaesthetic, scrub and prep rooms, a recovery unit, and an ophthalmology day unit. But Mr Burke was told in the Dáil on Thursday that approval for an additional consultant ophthalmic surgeon post “is being examined in the context of the funding available in 2023”.

He was also told that the transfers of the CUH and MUH services to the new unit are expected in early 2023, while the unit will also support the work of the regional eye care service based in the new primary community care centre in Ballincollig.

The HSE has described the development of the new unit as “further evidence of the government's commitment” to the SIVUH and to the people of Cork.