"Cataract surgery"

Thank you to Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust for seeing me through the process of assessment for cataract surgery at Charing Cross Hospital and then the straightforward surgery yesterday at the Western Eye Hospital.  Its awesome that this treatment is now routine and life changing world-wide thanks to the work begun in the 1940s by the late courageous scientist and eye surgeon Sir Harold Ridley.  I was impressed yesterday how Surgeon Veronica and her team, checked and checked and checked again who I was, which eye they were treating, my medications and allergies, which lens they were using - cross referencing all the detail in the notes and conferring with me.  A great example of a "making safety" protocol in circumstances where there can be no room for any mistakes.   A final comment for reflection - the team that dealt with me yesterday had many different people doing different things.  Not all of them followed the #hellomynameis approach.  The ones that did, including Surgeon Veronica, helped to put me at my ease and gave me a greater sense that they understood their accountability to me as a patient as I made an effort to make sense of the complexity of what needed to be done to prep me for surgery.

Thank you too to my Boots high street optician who started the referral process when the pesky cataract started impact on my functioning.  I have a little bit more recovery time yet, but I'm looking forward to clearer vision soon.