A pensioner's planned visit to an ill relative in North America could be saved after York District Hospital cut her waiting time for treatment by more than nine months.

Joan Merryweather: trip to Canada was put at risk by long waiting time for eye treatment

And Joan Merryweather claims the highlighting by the Evening Press of long waiting times led to the reduction.

Mrs Merryweather, 77, of Shipton Street, York, planned to travel to Canada in the autumn to see her cousin who suffers from a heart problem.

But the trip was put at risk through fear that she would fall as she climbed into the aeroplane because of a problem which left her blinded in one eye. And she was told it would take more than a year just to be seen by a hospital consultant, with a wait of at least another year before the operation was carried out.

She said: "I have had a cataract operation, but my sight started to diminish again after an implant burst. At first it was like I was looking through a shadow, but now I can barely see in one eye and I certainly can't read or anything like that.

"I fell a few weeks ago and, although fortunately I wasn't hurt, I began to worry that I would have problems getting up the steps on the plane, so I went to see my doctor who referred me to a consultant.

"But when I asked the hospital how long it would be I was told I was being treated as a non-urgent case and it would take more than one year."

She believes the laser treatment she needs is a simple procedure and would only take about ten minutes.

And, after complaining, she has been contacted by the hospital and told her consultation has been pushed forward by more than nine months, with her appointment now in June.

She said: "I am sure the bad publicity that the length of waiting lists has been getting in the Evening Press has made them sit up and do something, but it shouldn't have to take that.

"Don't misunderstand me, the hospitals are fantastic, the nurses are fantastic and the doctors do all that they can, but the problems are caused by a lack of finance.

"Old people feel angry because for 50 years they have put money into the health service and they expect the Government to look after people from the cradle to the grave, but it isn't happening."

And she is taking the problem to the Government by writing to Health Secretary Frank Dobson.

She said: "I am writing to say that he came to York and told us that waiting lists have got much shorter, but our experience is that they are actually getting longer."

Her experiences follow the Evening Press's revelations that people needing cataract operations in York wait an average 13 months from the time they first see their GP - while in nearby Wakefield the wait is little more than five months.

Chief executive of York NHS Trust, Dr Peter Kennedy, said: "There are very large numbers of patients involved and the waiting time is usually somewhere around 17 weeks for consultation.

"If particular cases are identified by the GP or the consultant as of particularly low priority it could be longer than that, but I can't comment about individual cases."

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