LASER EYE SURGERY

Early day motion 1345, tabled 5 June 2003 by Ashok Kumar (Labour). Signed by 51 members.

That this House notes with concern reports in the medical journal Opthalmology giving the failure rate for eye surgery as one in 10, rather than one in 100 claimed by clinics; further notes the increase in negligence claims against eye surgeons performing laser eye surgery; is astonished that clinics can legally employ GPs and other non-specialists to carry out this surgical procedure, despite studies which show that a significantly higher number of complications occurred when procedures were conducted by more inexperienced practitioners; and calls on the Government to require private practices to employ qualified opthalmologists to conduct laser eye surgery and to report the number and nature of all such operations and complaints; and that those clinics be subject to regular scrutiny.

Signatures by party: Labour 35, Liberal Democrat 8, Labour/Co-operative 3, Conservative 2, Plaid Cymru 2, UUP 1.