Arthur Spring (Kerry North-West Limerick, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for Health for joining us. Many issues come in to us in our constituency offices that are pertinent to society, yet very few have come across my desk recently that are as serious as this matter. It concerns the cataract extractions that are necessary for elderly people, the most dominant section of society suffering from cataracts. I will give an example of the timeframe for treatment and its consequences. As a medical doctor, the Minister will, I am sure, appreciate this. Ophthalmologists and eye specialists are giving me first-hand data.

Currently, there are people in their 70s, 80s and 90s telling me they are being seen by a community medical ophthalmologist for the purposes of identifying whether they need a cataract extraction. These individuals are being put on a waiting list by the HSE and are waiting two years, on average, to be seen by - believe it or not - another community medical ophthalmologist, not in County Kerry, but in County Cork. Thereafter they are actually allowed to go and see a surgeon, following another 12 month period. There is a waiting time of up to three years; I have first-hand information from medics that it is currently a three year process. It is like a Kerryman joke that a community medical ophthalmologist in Kerry is not taken seriously enough and people have to go and see another one in Cork two years later to confirm they need a cataract extraction.

There are about 40 people in the Tralee area currently who need this because they can no longer read, see TV or drive their cars. One person - this is a very pertinent case, if the Minister does not mind - is deaf, lip-reads in order to communicate and is on a two year waiting list. That person is elderly, as is the majority of these people. Their quality of life is poor and becoming poorer and their standard of living, as influenced by those who are caring for them, is becoming more needs-based than compassion-based. There is a need for them to be brought shopping, collected and kept in care.

The knock-on effect is that there is more demand for home help and carers. There is also the threat of serious injury if someone is not able, while walking, to identify potholes, steps or other obstructions on the day-to-day route to the shop and so on. If they fall they are inclined to break a hip or do some other serious injury to themselves. Then we are into long-term care for the individual and the costs incurred by that.

I can cite many examples and have submitted some parliamentary questions to the Minister lately. It is not for the purposes of trying to heighten or exaggerate the matter. There is a problem and there is a solution. I am aware that people are travelling to Cork, many of them 80 or 90 years of age, to go to a community medical ophthalmologist. That is a six-hour ordeal at a minimum. For someone to be asked to do that at 90 is a little bit much. The Minister should accept the bona fidesof what is going on in County Kerry. He should go straight into looking at the national treatment purchase fund as the solution.

Kerry General Hospital does not have autonomy in this matter and cannot operate on these patients. It is sending them to Cork University Hospital, CUH. Half a mile over the road, however, the Bon Secours Hospital has a theatre lying idle when we have the funding. I ask the Minister to tell me in his first response how much money is being spent on the national treatment purchase fund currently. I have information that Cork - not Kerry - patients are going to the Mater Private in Cork for the purpose of having cataract extractions. That is not happening in County Kerry.

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