GP has told me I need to go private to have cataracts surgery

[user1474095534]

It seems like they will only do surgery if it gets so bad you are loosing your eye sight, by this time it's too late! It's surgery that isn't too expensive and has a great success rate so it should be readily available.

I did work for over 30 years, always paid my stamp in return for cradle to grave health care, but I don't think the government are sticking to their side of the contract.

[PacificDogwod]

I would just like my OP before the damage makes me go blind and is irreversible

Yes, of course, and so you should.
Cataracts are a dulling of the eye's natural lens, so by taking the diseased lens out and putting a nice new clear one in the problem is solved. There is no 'going blind'.
Unless you have another eye problem on top of the cataracts? Macular degeneration?? That is the most common cause of age related blindness and not treatable by surgery.

[PacificDogwod]

I'm not in work, thats another reason why I think I'm not seen as a priority.



You are being ridiculous and now come across as enjoying the drama rather disproportionately.
So, in answer to the question in your OP, yes, YABU.

[Chippednailvarnishing]

8'000.00 pounds is a lot, would mean no holidays this year and other cut backs

Shame you can't get something like a student discount.

[PacificDogwod]

Chipped, one eye cataract surgery at the local Nuffield Hospital where I am is £2405 - I just checked.
Clearly not cheap.
They are also very clear about the risks and when surgery is indicated. And when not.
An honest look at cataract surgery

[Chippednailvarnishing]

I'm joking pacific. This poster has issues with Morrisons offering student discount as "1/4 of pensioners are living in poverty and many will have to starve or freeze to death this winter".

Funny enough when pushed to give the source of the statistics, the OP went very quiet.
If you can afford holidays OP, you can pay for your own op.

[PacificDogwod]

Ah.
Thanks, Chipped.
The 8k did surprise me.

[Chippednailvarnishing]

£8k is clearly just another made up number

[expatinscotland]

Good spot, Chipped. This 'user' crap has given rise to a ton of such . . . ilk.

[Chippednailvarnishing]

ilk

You're being polite! It's really fucking annoying.

[PacificDogwod]

Maybe you get a better class of lens for 8k?
Gold plated?
But only if you are in work or have paid your stamp for 200 years. Or you are a student. Or on benefits, I guess

[Chippednailvarnishing]

Slight divergence but my DM used to make the replacement lenses for cataract surgery. Clever stuff. The patients sometimes used to come in and you could see the stitches in the eyeball and where the surgeon had pushed the knot at the end of the thread inside the eyeball to stop it scratching the eyelid.

[QueenLizIII]

I see it as a theme on here that people are very concerned with NHS care and what they should / should not provide. That is good. We all need to be conscious of it.

In keeping with this: I see alot of threads saying I want a 3rd 4th whatver child and my DP doesnt. These threads are met with sympathy.

Does the cost of maternity care per new child and free prescriptions during pregnancy and after and creating 3 new people from one woman to all use the health service concern you?

It is not the OPs fault she has cataracts. A child is a lifestyle choice.

If the cost of the maternity care and new person with sometimes 2,3,4 children per couple to use the NHS doesn't concern you, why doesn't it?

[QueenLizIII]

Someone told me off for being annoyed at my GP for being shitty about prescribing a drug that was expensive that my consultant said I needed and I got my arse handed to me by someone about being mindful of NHS costs.

But if I said I was having a 4th kid no one would question the cost and drain to the NHS on here.

[Chippednailvarnishing]

A child is a lifestyle choice

Which in time will become an economically viable unit. Unlike pensioners, a lot of whom have taken massive benefits from the state and paid relatively little in. In fact our aging population is placing a huge strain on social care and the NHS, so maybe we should just cull the over 65's. It would reap far bigger economic benefits than stopping people having a 3rd child.

[dillyduck]

I had lens replacement surgery privately this year (£10,000).

My friend had rapid developing cataract and had hers done 4 days after going to see the NHS consultant. It was only 5 months since it started and about 1 month. since she first went to the gp

[PacificDogwod]

A child is a lifestyle choice.


Ok, we'll all have less children and import more young, healthy able-bodied people to work/pay tax/provide all the carers we need to look after our increasingly older population with all their care needs who are also such a drain on the NHS.
Oh wait, no, want control over our borders.

I know, the Inuit have it right: put our elderly on ice floats when they become unable to look after themselves. Apparently hypothermia is not an unpleasant death.



Both of you, behave

[PacificDogwod]

dillyduck, 10 grand: that will have included sight correction, yes?
And a tidy profit for the private provider.

[dillyduck]

You do get the option of different lens if you go privately. Mine are multi focal and the NHS do single vision.

[dillyduck]

No, I have not had sight correction. It was done at Moorfields. Not sure who get the profit but the fee was paid directly to the hospital.

It was more expensive as the original lens was broken down by laser rather than removed (added about £600 an eye)

[PacificDogwod]

Yes, multifocal sounds great.
I have looked at that option.
Are you happy with your result?
I might just start saving my pennies.

[dillyduck]

Long sight is fabulous (I was -7 lenses before).

1 eye is pretty perfect for near reading as well. The other is a not as as sharp. It was done about 3 months ago so having another check later in the year.

[SauvignonPlonker]

Poor diddums, you'd have to go without holidays to come up with the 8K.

My heart bleeds for you.

[dillyduck]

Poor diddums, you'd have to go without holidays to come up with the 8K.My heart bleeds for you.

I assume that you do not have cataracts and so are not going blind?

Never mind if you live long enough then it will come to you. Maybe then you might be a bit more sympathetic.

[SauvignonPlonker]

As has already been said up thread, you do not go blind from cataracts.

And if you spend 8k or more a year on holidays, you clearly have a lot of cash to splash.

[Oldsu]

Its nothing to do with having both eyes affected or the severity of the affected eye/eyes look at the RNIB and the NHS choices websites both say that the operation can be done if only one eye is affected s money pure and simple where we live there are no restrictions by the HA for cataract ops, they don't restrict them at all my OH only had one eye affected but he had his op with no problem at the age of 64 and he only waited 4 months from the initial referral by his GP