Since my face appeared in the Evening Press (April 13), several mature people with eye problems have been in touch to tell me how brave I am to stand up to authority.

If you want to know how brave I am, come with me the next time I go to the dentist. Time goes by so fast when you are older, perhaps it appears that we ripe ones will not notice a few extra months in a year. I thought my eye was on the year waiting list from October; when I inquired about my position on the list in the March I was told I had a year to wait, which meant my year would be 18 months long.

I suggested that perhaps the problem was communication, and, apparently when you ring up to inquire about your position on the list, the stock answer is "a 12 months wait", because in fact the inquiry staff do not have any lists to which to refer. The term 'on the list' is a turn of phrase, and where cataracts are concerned just a nicer way of saying 'in the heap.'

The cataract operation has been referred to as a simple one which does not take long. When the scalpel is pointed at your eye you are deeply grateful that the man on the other end of it is a clever, dedicated surgeon who has taken a long time to hone his skills. I was. I am.

When the planned new hospital building takes shape it will be a lovely sight for those still alive to see it, and a great deal more useful than the Millennium Dome.

Would it not be possible for some York cataract patients to be bussed out to other hospitals where the waiting lists are not so overwhelming?

Jean Heaven,

Usher Lane,

Haxby,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.