A GWENT man was forced to travel to London to save his sight as the emergency eye surgery service in Wales was closed.

Gordon Williams, from Cwmbran, was diagnosed with a detached retina by a doctor at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport on Friday morning following a routine check with his optician.

The father of three from Ty Trappa, Pontnewydd, was told he would lose the sight in his eye if he did not have surgery within 24 hours.

But Mr Williams, 52, was told he would not be able to have the operation at the nearest available clinic, in Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales (the Heath), because the service closes at noon every Friday until Monday morning.

Instead he was forced to travel to London's Moorfield Hospital that afternoon for surgery, and says he met a woman from Wales who had also been transferred to the hospital for the same operation.

"It's absolutely farcical that the service was closed in Wales for the weekend - it's a terrible state of affairs," he said.

"I had to get a friend to drive me down and was booked in by 9pm. I have to go back to the Moorfield for my post-op follow-up in ten days' time. "It's ridiculous when we have the facilities and skills in Wales."

Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust confirmed the service closed at the weekend as no funding was currently available for weekend services, but refused to comment on individual cases.

But a spokeswoman for Cardiff and Vale Local Health Board (LHB), which funds the service at the Heath, said extra money had been provided to run a weekend service, and an urgent meeting is going to take place with the NHS trust to resolve the situation.

"Extra funding was requested and has been provided for a general service, including emergency weekend cover," said the spokeswoman. "We will therefore be closely monitoring the situation."

Mr Williams said he is taking the matter up with Gwent Community Health Council - the patients' watchdog, and Torfaen's MP, Paul Murphy. A spokeswoman for Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust said the trust could not comment on individual cases and would be meeting the LHB to discuss the matter.

Gwent CHC said it is "concerned" about the situation. A spokesman said: "From what we have heard, the situation should have been available to the patient in Wales when he needed it. "The fact that it wasn't involved him in considerable inconvenience."

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