Up to 800 extra eye operations are to be carried out in Lancashire by a medical team from South Africa.

The surgeons have been specially flown in for four weeks as part of Operation Cataract.

It is hoped the visit will reduce patients' waiting time for cataract surgery to six instead of 14 months.

Patients in Morecambe, Lancaster and South Cumbria will benefit from the extra staff, to be based at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

Legionnaires' outbreak

The team of 40, including eight consultant surgeons, start work on Thursday.

It follows a scheme where teams of Spanish doctors were drafted in to the North West to relieve NHS staff shortages.

The backlog of operations is thought to be as a result of the Legionnaires' outbreak in Cumbria in August.

The initiative was set up after Morecambe Bay Hospitals NHS Trust secured funding from the government's Overseas Clinical Team.

Medical equipment, including extra operating gear and microscopes, has been hired for the scheme.