A team of surgeons from South Africa has arrived in North West England to carry out cataract operations.

Operation Cataract is aimed at reducing the number of people waiting for cataract operations in the area.

A specialist team of 40 doctors and nurses will carry out the 800 operations at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary over a four-week period.

Patients from Lancaster, Morecambe and south Cumbria will benefit from the accelerated drive to carry out operations.

our aim is to reduce our waiting times significantly from well over a year to six months

Ian Cummings

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

The Infirmary has fallen behind the Furness General in cataract operations, and this project aims to wipe out the deficit.

The Chief Executive of the Morecambe Bay Hospitals Trusts, Ian Cumming says the extra staff from South Africa will mean they can tackle the backlog.

"What we are trying to do here is to reduce a backlog of people waiting for surgery.

"In our eye departments at the moment we are roughly able to keep pace with the number of referrals coming in, so our waiting times are static.

Post-operative care

"By operating on an extra 800 pairs of eyes with this initiative, our aim is to reduce our waiting times significantly from well over a year to six months.

"What we are also doing is ensuring that in our ophthalmic department we have got enough resources to keep our waiting times low.

"Our aim is to operate on well over 800 patients, which is a challenge in a four-week period, but we think we are geared up to do it."

Some members of the scheme - organised in partnership with global private health provider Netcare - will remain in Lancaster after it ends to deal with post-operative care.