THE HEALTH Service Executive is to cut prices that it pays to reimburse people who travel to Northern Ireland for cataract surgery.
The amount for standard eye treatments has been reduced from nearly €2,000 to €1,150. The cuts come into effect from Saturday.
In Cork, the organisers of a bus service bringing cataract patients to Belfast have blasted the move as “shameful”.
It is known as the ‘cataract express’ and the 7am bus in Cork city was packed with patients going to the North before today’s cuts kick in.
Thousands of people have come off waiting lists since the initiative was launched in 2017.
Doctors say in most cases cataract surgery is a simple but life changing procedure which can be done in about 20 minutes.
However, many people wait years to be seen, often leading to unnecessary suffering and blindness.
Patients with standard eye treatments will see their rate of reimbursement drop to €1,150 and there is concern that some people will cancel future trips and operations because of the reduced reimbursement.
One of the organisers of the bus, Cork South West TD Michael Collins, said patients in Cork and Kerry and other counties have been able to get their procedure done successfully.
He said: “The bus has been a godsend for them but now some of these pensioners will not be able to afford to get the treatment.
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“It’s no exaggeration to say that these people will go blind as a result.
“The Government’s decision is nothing short of outrageous.”
Separately, a man has died after catching one of the world’s deadliest diseases in Portugal.
It is the first time the lethal haemorrhagic fever with “pandemic potential” has been spotted in a European country.
Earlier this month, local health officials announced an 80-year-old who had been doing outdoor farm work had died from Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), which is mostly spread through infected ticks.
The man had been admitted to the Hospital de Bragançato on July 11 after he developed “nonspecific symptoms”, the Portuguese Directorate-General of Health (GDH), said in a statement.
After he died samples were taken which revealed he was carrying CCHF, which has a fatality rate as high as 40 per cent.