Why is it acceptable that patients having cataract surgery in public hospitals are often left with residual astigmatism?

I am passionate about giving patients their best refractive outcome regardless of where I am treating them. Artificial thresholds for toric IOL use have become standard worldwide, when in private practice these would be unacceptable. We can all do better.

I work in a public hospital department in Adelaide, Australia (where I reside) and where we can freely implant toric IOLs as well as trifocal, EDOF and monodical plus options. Trainees get real world exposure and patients are given options they deserve. Our budget still allows for other services to run and grow. Problems are rare.

This has been done with help from industry, particularly Zeiss Group – but it is very achievable.

Thank you to Insight Ophthalmic Magazine for providing a platform to discuss this issue. It’s so much easier to do what has been done historically but it’s so much more important to do what’s right for your patients. The effort is worth it.

This article is available to read here.

Thank you.