Two in three of the UK’s health trusts are ignoring new orders to offer cataract surgery to all those sufferers whose doctors believe they would benefit. Instead most of the trusts are only offering to treat cataracts where patients are nearly blind with them, on the grounds of saving costs.

This has been described as “inhumane” and “profoundly stupid” by the Daily Mail newspaper which, along with the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) and Age UK point out that denying cataract sufferers the simple and quick operation is a false economy since those with failing sight are more prone to falls, incapacity and mental illness, ending up costing the NHS even more.