Yvonne Webb

Over 200 cataract op­er­a­tions at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal (SFGH) have been can­celled for the month of June, due to a short­age of the lens­es re­quired for these op­er­a­tions. Re­ports from the Oph­thal­mol­o­gy De­part­ment is that this sit­u­a­tion has caused an over­all 30 per­cent de­crease in the num­ber of cataract surg­eries for the year to date.

A source in the de­part­ment blamed poor man­age­ment at the SFGH, "for the chron­ic in­abil­i­ty to sup­ply, in a time­ly man­ner, these sup­ple­men­tary ma­te­ri­als." The lens are or­dered through Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Prop­er­ty De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (Nipdec) which man­ages the drug dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem on be­half of the Min­istry of Health. The source said pro­cure­ment of the drugs through this agency is prob­lem­at­ic.

The source ex­plained that with the open­ing of the eye the­atre in 2010, the hos­pi­tals now have a ca­pac­i­ty to do at least 2,000 cataract pro­ce­dures per an­num. In 2011, a to­tal of 1,100 pro­ce­dures were per­formed, at an av­er­age of 91 per month. "As a re­sult of the in­crease in pro­ce­dures be­ing done, sup­ple­men­tary but es­sen­tial prod­ucts, such as in­traoc­u­lar lens­es and vis­coelas­tics be­gan to run short or run out, ham­per­ing the ef­fi­cient de­liv­ery of the ser­vice and again set­ting back at­tempts to clear the bur­geon­ing back­log of cas­es at SFGH."

The source added that 400 cataract pro­ce­dures have been done for the first six months of the year, an av­er­age of 66 per month or a de­crease of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 30 per­cent, in spite of an­oth­er op­er­at­ing unit. "In more re­cent terms, as a re­sult of the com­plete lack of vis­coelas­tic, on­ly eight cas­es have been done thus far for June and over 200 cataract cas­es can­celled. Some pa­tients have vol­un­teered to pri­vate­ly ac­quire the vis­coelas­tics since they have be­come ex­treme­ly frus­trat­ed with mul­ti­ple can­cel­la­tions and long wait­ing time for surgery," the source added.

It is un­der­stood there have been some at­tempts to rem­e­dy the sit­u­a­tion with Lenstec lens­es be­ing sourced from Bar­ba­dos. How­ev­er, due to the un­avail­abil­i­ty of vis­coelas­tic, the lens­es are use­less, the source said. Chair­man of the South West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (SWRHA) Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe said this mat­ter is cur­rent­ly en­gag­ing the at­ten­tion of the Board.

"The mat­ter has been brought to my at­ten­tion and the CEO (Anil Go­sine) was asked to in­ves­ti­gate the short­age and to do what­ev­er is re­quired and nec­es­sary to pro­cure lens­es in the short­est pos­si­ble time. I have been giv­en the as­sur­ance that the sit­u­a­tion will be back to nor­mal in the very near fu­ture," Bo­doe as­sured.

He said one of the con­cerns ex­pressed by pa­tients whose surg­eries would have been can­celled, was that their names would be re­turned to the bot­tom of the wait­ing list when the sit­u­a­tion is re­solved. "I have asked that these pa­tients be giv­en pri­or­i­ty when the ser­vice comes back to full ca­pac­i­ty and not to be put at the end of the wait­ing list." Bo­doe is due to meet with the staff of the Oph­thal­mol­o­gy de­part­ment to­mor­row.