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A High Court judge has criticised an NHS trust for a two and a half year delay in applying for court permission to perform cataract surgery on a 10 year old girl while her eyesight deteriorated and she fell far behind her peers educationally.
Mrs Justice Lieven warned trusts not to delay too long while trying to reach agreements with parents who are reluctant to agree to necessary treatment for their children.1 “What has occurred in this case is a factor that comes up in other cases,” she said. “In the period when a trust is trying to reach agreement with a parent, there is actually detriment to a child. In AB’s [the girl’s] case there has been a 2.5 year delay from when she was first referred to when the matter even got into the court door.”
AB was first seen by the trust, which was not named in the judgment, in 2014 and had cataracts diagnosed in both eyes. A series of missed appointments followed, but Lieven said it was not suggested that...