Inseparable couple Jeff and Janice Price speak on using the cross-border scheme to have cataract surgery at Cathedral Eye Clinic
Jeff and Janice Price have done everything together in their lives.
So, when both began suffering from cataracts in their eyes, it was just natural for them to seek help together.
Jeff, (77) and his wife Janice, (74), made the decision to travel from their home in County Kerry to the Cathedral Eye Clinic in Belfast using a new cross-border health scheme.
Under that scheme, introduced by the Health Service Executive (HSE), the retired couple were able to recoup most of the costs. They both had cataracts in both eyes. They underwent surgery in October and return to Belfast in December to have the second eyes treated.
“It has been absolutely amazing for us,” says Janice, a few days after the October surgery.
“I was told I had cataracts starting about four years ago and I was told it was time to go on the waiting list, but the only list I wanted to be on was the one at the Cathedral Eye Clinic in Belfast where there’s a lot less waiting!
“The staff at the clinic were absolutely wonderful. Our experience was second to none and we cannot thank them enough.
“I could see the difference in my sight the very next day (after surgery). My eyesight was incredible. I could see so many things I couldn’t see before, especially things in the distance. What struck me was the incredible colours of everything, even the simplest of things.”
Husband Jeff had to wait a few more days after his first operation to see the benefits, but then he began to see the incredible difference.
“I had surgery on my right eye,” said Jeff.
“The outcome has been fantastic. I can’t begin to tell you how amazing colours are again. It’s like moving from an old black and white TV to full-on High-Definition Colour television. We live beside a forest and I’m now constantly amazed at the greenery all around us. We can’t wait to get our second eyes done.”
The couple have been married for 44 years, having met in the research department of EMI in England where they both worked in administration at an incredible time of medical innovation.
“We saw the world’s first CT brain scanner invented by Sir Godfrey Hounsfield (later awarded the Nobel Prize) before he went on to invent the MRI scanner, so we’re are not new to medical innovation,” says Janice.
“What the team delivers at the Cathedral Eye Clinic, for us, is also medical innovation too as they are restoring our eyesight. I don’t understand it, I just know it works and I’d say to anyone suffering with cataracts in their eyes to call the clinic, make an appointment and change your life for the better. Then claim most of the costs back from the HSE. It truly is remarkable.”
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Are you suffering from cataracts in one or both eyes? Or do you have a relative suffering with the condition?
Call the Cathedral Eye Clinic Patient Care Team now from the Republic on 048 90 32 20 20. Most of the costs of the consultation and surgery, if required, will be reimbursed by the HSE under the NI Planned Healthcare Scheme.
Our team of experts, using the very latest technology to help restore vision, have treated thousands of patients suffering with cataracts under HSE cross-border schemes.
