Over 5,500 waiting for cataract operation

There are 5,544 people on the waiting list for a cataract operation at Mater Dei Hospital, the Labour Party said.

Furthermore, some patients have been waiting for the intervention for four-and-a-half years, shadow minister Michael Farrugia and spokesman Tony Agius Decelis said.

The two spokesmen deemed this unacceptable, especially when most cataract patients were elderly, posing a danger to themselves and others because of their poor eyesight.

This is but one of the many examples of long waiting lists at the hospital, they said.

The Ministry of Social Policy replied saying that 23,867 operations had been performed over the past eight months, an increase of 909 operations over the corresponding period last year. Of these, 797 were cataract interventions.

Countering Labour's accusation that the government is not addressing the problem, the ministry asked what its solution to the waiting lists would be.