Brother has just been referred with cataracts. Does paying privately actually get you a better lens than waiting on the NHS?

Asking for my younger brother who does not do forums. He is 71, optician found cataracts in both eyes a fortnight ago and referred him. He has been told there will be a wait but no idea how long.

His golf club friends are all telling him to go private because "you get a better lens". He has some savings and is tempted but does not want to throw money away. I had standard lenses on the NHS and I am perfectly happy, apart from the night glare business I posted about. So is it true that private gets you a better lens, or is it just faster? And if he goes private for one eye, can he go back on the NHS list for the other?

I had a toric lens in one eye which I paid for on top of the NHS operation, and that was offered because I had astigmatism. The plain lens in the other eye is identical in daylight. Better is the wrong word. Different, for different eyes.

Harold, I think Ken has put it better than I could: private is not a better lens so much as a wider menu, plus often a shorter wait. The standard monofocal lens used on the NHS gives excellent, predictable distance vision, and it is what most people have. What paying privately can add is choice of lens types such as multifocal or extended depth of focus lenses, which aim to reduce glasses use but can bring more glare and haloes at night, and that is a trade-off worth thinking hard about given your own experience. The guide to premium lenses, are they worth it is honest about who they suit.

On the referral side, our new guide to getting referred for cataract surgery walks through the wait, choosing where to be referred, and what a good referral says. In England he may be able to choose a hospital or an NHS-funded independent centre with a shorter wait, which is worth asking his optician or GP about now. Whether he can have one eye privately and return to the NHS for the other depends on local rules, so he should ask both the private clinic and the NHS unit before paying anything. And whichever route he takes, the lens decision belongs in the assessment with the surgeon who has measured his eyes, not with the golf club.

I went NHS for my first eye and was offered a straight choice of the standard lens or paying for a toric. Nobody pushed anything. Wait from referral to the op was about five months in my area for what it is worth, but I gather that varies a lot.

Passed all this on. He has asked his optician about choosing a different hospital, apparently there is a treatment centre twenty miles away with a shorter list. He is going to see what the NHS assessment says about his eyes before spending a penny. Golf club have been told to mind their own business.