It is a journey of over five hours and roughly 300 miles but for many Kerry people rarely has a trip to Belfast ever been so essential. 

So long are the waiting lists for cataract surgery in the Republic that thousands of people have been sent across the border to receive treatment in Northern Ireland. 

“The best way to describe this service is I’m ashamed that it has to be there,” local TD Michael Healy Rae told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“But I’m very glad to be able to help and facilitate people if needed.” 

For many of the elderly patients, the journey is long and arduous but the consequences of not going and waiting for treatment locally are profound: 

“I put it too bluntly,” Deputy Healy Rae continued. 

“If your cataract is ripe and if the time is going against you, the best way to describe it is you very well could potentially lose your sight. 

“I know of people who didn’t come to me in time and who have gone blind in that eye. Unfortunately, we have people in Kerry today who are blind and the reason they’re blind is that cataract weren’t removed in time. 

“Ideally, we need more services provided [locally].” 

I boarded one of the ‘cataract buses’ that travel to Belfast.

Patients tell me they have been waiting years for treatment in the Republic.

Hear from @MHealyRae who organises the buses and from those making the trip on @NTBreakfast shortly. pic.twitter.com/MeYAFZHNj6

— Josh Crosbie (@JoshCrosbie3) August 30, 2022

No alternative

Cathay Sheehan from Glenbeigh was on the bus for the second time. Until the first trip she had never been to Belfast but knew she had no alternative unless she wanted to wait years for the life-changing treatment.

“I’d love to have it in Kerry,” she said wistfully. 

“But it goes on and on like.” 

So long are waiting lists that some patients have been needing treatment for over a decade. One such woman is Maureen from Killorglin and her son Pat said her eyesight had become “quite poor” in recent years: 

“She got the right eye done in 2011 and they told her in six or eight months she’d need the second one done and we’ve been on the waiting list since,” he explained wearily.  

“We were in Cork last October to get the right eye checked to be done but we’ve heard nothing since. 

“She’s on the waiting list since 2011 and when I rang Cork last October to ask about it of course they blamed COVID… but [the hospital official] she told me that by the looks of it would be 2025 before she’d be done.” 

Main image: Cataract surgery. Picture by: Alamy.com