A postcode lottery that deprives cataract sufferers of vital surgery is to end.
The rationing body NICE has been given until April to draw up fairer rules that will apply nationwide.
The official guidance will stipulate that patients everywhere must get the best treatment as early as possible.
Jeremy Hunt (pictured) said: ‘For too long, as the Mail has highlighted, some patients with cataracts have had to endure lengthy waits for treatment’
Many are denied surgery altogether, or made to wait up to 15 months.
The shake-up was not due before 2018 but Jeremy Hunt has rushed it forward following a Daily Mail campaign.
The Health Secretary said: ‘For too long, as the Mail has highlighted, some patients with cataracts have had to endure lengthy waits for treatment and unacceptable variations in care.
‘I am taking steps to end this. This will help to ensure patients, many of whom will be elderly, get the standard of care we would all want for our parents and grandparents – effective treatment as early as possible.’
Some people had been informed they were not ‘entitled’ to surgery just because they had laser treatment on their eyes 16 years ago FILE IMAGE
The Mail has exposed the ordeal of tens of thousands of elderly cataract sufferers who are routinely denied crucial surgery by cost-cutting NHS managers.
Three quarters of hospitals refuse to refer patients for the £1,000 operation unless they can prove their vision is very poor. Most stipulate that they must score extremely badly in sight tests – and many state both eyes must be affected.
Even then, patients are told to prove their vision is severely affecting their daily lives by completing forms stating how often they fall over.
A damning report today highlights the scale of the problem. It reveals how those fortunate enough to be offered NHS surgery face further delays of up to 15 months.
According to Royal National Institute for the Blind, patients in Enfield, north London, typically wait 467 days between their first hospital appointment and the eye operation.
This compares with just 15 days in Luton, according to freedom of information responses from NHS clinical commissioning groups.
Many of the problems are caused by the fact there are no national NHS guidelines setting out who is eligible for surgery and who is not.
Former care worker Daphne Buxton was told by her optician to buy darker sunglasses, rather than have surgery
This means cost-cutting health trusts are left to make up their own criteria. But the new rules from NICE will attempt to end this postcode lottery and ensure many more patients benefit.
They will instruct ophthalmologists to refer patients for treatment if their cataracts are affecting their daily life, such as when driving or reading.
Contrary to health trusts’ own guidelines, the rules will state that patients do not need to have a certain sight score before being considered.
Instead, ophthalmologists will be told to consider each patient individually and weigh up their overall health and individual circumstances.
They will be urged to prioritise patients who live alone, care for loved-ones or who are at high risk of falls.
NICE is planning to publish a draft of the guidelines in April followed by the final version next October, after it has been through a consultation.
Mark Baker, director of the centre for guidelines at NICE, said: ‘The Secretary of State has asked us to bring forward publication of our guideline on the management of cataracts in adults.
WHAT IS A CATARACT?
A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye leading to a decrease in vision. It can affect one or both eyes. The first ever cataract operation was performed in 1950 by Harold Ridley, replacing the eye’s natural lens with one made out of plastic. At the time the operation was very controversial, many of Mr Ridley’s contemporaries disapproved. However the surgery he pioneered has saved the sight of more than 200 million people worldwide.
‘We will now aim to publish the guideline in October 2017, six months earlier than previously planned.
‘Draft recommendations will be ready by Easter next year. We will aim to complete this substantial and complex piece of work sooner because the NHS needs guidance on when to refer patients with cataracts for surgery.’
More than half of the over-65s in England – about 4.5million people suffer to some degree from cataracts – which occur when the lens in front of the eye becomes cloudy with age.
They get gradually worse with time and some patients are so severely affected they cannot read, watch television, recognise faces or drive at night. The condition is easily treatable with a 30-minute operation to remove the cloudy lens and replace it with a plastic implant.
It costs less than £1,000 per eye and many patients say it transforms their lives and grants them renewed independence.
But despite this, the surgery is often one of the first treatments to be rationed by cash-strapped health bosses.
Many hospitals even encourage patients to queue jump by paying privately – at up to £3,000 per eye.
Many who live alone have lost their social lives and can no longer go out with friends in the evenings as they cannot drive at night
The UK performs fewer cataract operations per head than most other developed countries including Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Portugal.
The Mail’s revelations prompted hundreds of patients to come forward with their personal stories of how they had been refused operations.
One woman with desperately poor sight told how she had been advised by her doctor to wear dark glasses. Many others said they had been informed their only hope was to pay privately.
The scale of the crisis is revealed in the report today from the RNIB.
It says there is a postcode lottery of care across England, with patients in some regions being able to access surgery promptly while others are forced to wait for months before they are treated.
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Fazilet Hadi of the RNIB said: ‘The postcode lottery of services means patients with cataracts are regularly being denied access to timely treatment on the basis of where they live.
‘When a cataract begins to affect a person’s sight, their vision only gets worse.
‘The impact of delaying cataract surgery puts people at risk of injury through falls, makes doing everyday things difficult or impossible, and can lead to feelings of isolation.
‘These consequences can lead to health and social care expenditure, which is more than the cost of cataract treatment.’
The guidelines will apply to patients in England only.