David's Daily Diversions

Could See But Now I'm Blind

Bristol Eye Hospital is one of the leading opthamological centres in the country. Managers were so determined to meet Government targets for new outpatient appointments that they cancelled follow-up appointments for exisiting patients.

It would have been bad enough if they had cancelled just a few and inconvenienced a handful of people. That's not what they did. They cancelled more than 1,000 appointments each month. Patients, some with diabetes and glaucoma, had to wait as long as 20 months beyond their originally scheduled follow up.

As a result, at least 25 with conditions that would have otherwise been treatable have lost their sight. They are as blind as the Government, which cannot see that all of this playing politics with the health care service actually destroys the lives of the people they are allegedly governing.