"Long wait for surgery to save my partner's sight"

In December 2022 just before Christmas my partner, who's in his mid 50s, developed a detached retina. He had already lost the sight in the other eye from the same thing.

Surgery was organised within a couple of days and the team in Gartnavel, Glasgow were amazing. He had a number of follow up appointments and told that he would develop a cataract which could be dealt with in Dumfries. He was discharged in early summer 2023 and started seeing his local optician.

She referred him to Dumfries in July 2023 because the cataract was growing fast. He was told that the waiting list was about 6 months. He was aware that it was good to wait as long as possible because of the danger of another detached retina from the cataract surgery. In the meantime he had to pay to have his glasses changed 10 times to help him to see.

He rang the appointment line a few times to try and find out any information. He was told he was near the top of the list but that the clinics were only held about once a month. (The optician had told my partner that they were every day). Then on one occasion he was told that when he finally gets an appointment in the eye clinic it's going to be another 6 months before he gets surgery.

At this point he panicked because if the cataract is too far developed it might be difficult to remove it. He is so scared that he will go blind. So at the end of May 2024 he rang the private clinic in Braehead and we travelled up on the bus from Dumfries the following week. It was an awful experience for him, he was told the cost would be about £250 for the first consultation but he was invoiced for over £600, the bulk of that for less than a minute on an eye scanning machine. He then had to make the choice to carry on waiting with Dumfries or watch the costs spiral with the private clinic. He doesn't have a lot of money and has no private health care.

Braehead said they might have a cancellation the following week but he would need to call on the Wednesday. Just before he called them he decided to ring Dumfries one more time and this time the answer was 'yes we have a number of appointments available, what time would you like. There's one appointment left on ***? day but there are a few left on ***? day'. That was such a relief. He now wonders what would have happened if he hadn't called, would he have been contacted for an appointment with Dumfries or does he have to ring each time?

He attended the appointment early July and was told the consultant would need to see him before the surgery to understand what was involved and that this would be in a few weeks time. The staff were very good, thoroughly checked his eye and told us a lot of information about what to expect.

We are now back in the cycle of ringing the appointment line and being told there hasn't been a clinic arranged yet. It has now been over a year since he was referred from his optician and his glasses are at the maximum adjustment, they can't do any more. 

The whole thing has been such a stressful experience for both of us, but especially so for my partner. Communication about appointments and waiting times should be a lot better than they are. Something should be done to address the conflicting information we have been given from various people.

After all this I really hope that the cataract surgery is successful and saves my partner's sight.