Cataract lottery addressed at PMQs

Access to cataract surgery has been debated in Parliament after damning figures on the rationing of care were published.

Harriet Harman, deputy leader of the Labour Party, quizzed the government amid recent investigations showing the majority of Primary Care Trusts were limiting cataract surgery.

She said: 'How can the Foreign Secretary justify an elderly person with cataracts in both eyes being told that they can have surgery in only one of them?'

Standing in for David Cameron during Prime Minister's Questions last week, Foreign Secretary William Hague said: 'It is totally unacceptable if trusts are rationing on the basis of financial considerations. The NHS medical director has written to trusts telling them that the criteria for decisions must be only clinical and not financial. If evidence is found that they are ignoring that, the Secretary of State can intervene.'