MANY politicians have made the point that just throwing cash at the National Health Service will not cure its problems.

Lateral thinking and new approaches are what's needed to speed up treatment processes, ease staffing problems and shorten the long queues which have plagued the service.

We have seen nurses being brought in from other parts of the world to make up for a lack of trained local recruits and ease staffing crises.

Now mobile surgeries run by South Africans are to tackle the lengthy waiting lists for treatment to remove cataracts.

Nearly 3,300 people are on waiting lists of up to three months and a further 1,382 face queues of three to six months in Lancashire and Cumbria for operations which today are quite routine but which make a huge difference to the quality of life of many older people.

Poor sight and the risk of blindness rob pensioners of independence and dignity.

By treating 1,400 patients a year for the next five years the South Africans will make a deep impression on waiting lists.

Following a similar initiative the company involved, Netcare, has already helped to bring down the queues for hip and knee replacements by operating on 338 people in the region.

Hopefully this short-term relief will also enable NHS professionals to come up with a more lasting way of cutting the queues.