THE future could become a lot clearer for more than 1,000 eye patients across Preston and South Ribble as a mobile cataract removal unit rolls into the city.

The service, which will help 1,355 sufferers in the area over the next five years, will be operated by a South African team to help ease the pressure on NHS doctors and shorten waiting lists.

The unit, which features a theatre and rest rooms, is not intended to take the place of NHS cataract treatments, but will provide an additional service to give patients a choice of who carries out their operations.

Jointly funded by the individual primary care trusts, after an invitation for bids, the service will travel around Lancashire and Cumbria and will help more than 6,000 patients overall.

The South African Netcare team is the same organisation that undertook a similar initiative in Morecambe Bay in 2002, treating more than 900 eye patients. It was also responsible for performing 350 hip and knee replacements in the area.

Patients from Lancashire Teaching Hospital's waiting list will be the first to benefit from the unit when it comes to Preston, with 75 people being treated over four days from February 2. The team will spend another four-day stretch in Preston from April 3.

Pearse Butler, chief executive of Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority, said: "We have a large older population in this area which puts a high demand on the cataract service.

"But the longer surgery is left, the more the condition deteriorates, curtailing independence, dignity and quality of life.

"That's why we have made this particular operation a priority."