PENSIONERS are having to let their eyesight get worse before getting an operation because of changes to NHS policy, charities have warned.

They said a decision to introduce a threshold for cataract surgery – which replaces lenses in the eyes – was damaging OAPs’ quality of life.

An NHS Oxfordshire policy said those with an eye test score of 6/9 or better in either eye should be a low priority for treatment.

The eye test score means that a person who should be able to see the smallest eye chart letter 9ft away has to move to 6ft away from the chart to see it.

Just eight out of about 9,000 patients with poorer eyesight have had the operation since. Previously, surgery was decided on a case-by-case basis.

Paul Jewitt, chairman of the Oxfordshire Local Optometric Committee, said: “The limit they have set is too low.

“It requires a person to get too far before they can have the cataract operation. Some patients aren’t getting the surgery they should be. It is affecting their lives.”

He said the “visual acuity” measure did consider different needs, such as those who often drive at night. The policy acknowledges the test does “not necessarily reflect the degree of visual disability patients may experience”.

Mr Jewitt said the committee urged professionals to refer patients anyway.But guidance from NHS Oxfordshire was updated in June to urge against this and tell patients they “will be monitored”.

Penny Thewlis, deputy chief executive at Age UK Oxfordshire, said: “We have several concerns about a threshold. Cataracts affect people’s quality of life, and surgery markedly improves it.”

It put OAPs at more risk of falls, she added.

Sight charity the RNIB found that – as at NHS Oxfordshire – half of 133 English primary care trusts were restricting access. Spokesman Barbara McLaughlan said: “Some PCTs are forcing patients to live with unnecessary sight loss and a reduced quality of life.”

But the policy says the threshold “usually allows a person to function without significant visual difficulties” and is the level set by the Driver Vehicle Licencing Agency for a driving licence.

A spokesman for NHS Oxfordshire said the policy was introduced because patients were having the operation too early, before the disease developed.

She said: “Our aim is to ensure that patients who are offered cataract surgery are those who really need it.”

The number of patients seen, about 3,000 a year, and the £2m annual bill had not fallen, she said. Yet the authority did not know how many patients were not being referred as this was not passed to it by GPs and optometrists.

Those who do not meet the criteria can apply for individual funding. From April 2008 to April this year, eight out of 19 were approved.