Cataract surgery is the most common elective procedure in the UK, which people often choose to pay for themselves.
Cataract surgery is the most common elective procedure in the UK, which people often choose to pay for themselves.
If you have a cataract, it means the lens of one or both eyes has become cloudy or misty. Cataracts can affect your ability to watch TV, read, write or drive.
Cataract surgery is considered the only effective treatment for cataracts, and it can improve quality of life, reduce glare and improve depth perception. It is one of the most successful operations to improve the quality of one’s life.
But what are the options available for people in and around Birmingham? Here we take a closer look.
Cataract surgery options in and around Birmingham
Within 25 miles of Birmingham, encompassing Coventry, Warwick, Stafford and Worchester, there are 18 hospitals which offer private cataract surgery within the area, each of which is searchable on PHIN’s website. These are mainly independent hospitals but there are some NHS hospitals which have a Private Patient Unit on site.
The hospital that performs the most private cataract surgeries in and around Birmingham is Optegra Eye Hospital Birmingham which treated 635 patients and Spire Little Aston Hospital, which is the second-largest treating 615 patients in the past year and has a 95% patient satisfaction score.
Working across these hospitals sites there are 46 consultant doctors offering private cataract surgery, many of whom also work in the NHS.
Cost of your initial consultation
Before getting treatment, you will need to have a consultation with your doctor. This is to discuss your eye health and assess whether surgery is the right course of action for you. If you have insurance the cost of the initial consultation may be covered, at least in part, so it’s worth checking your coverage first.
According to our data, the fee for an initial consultation for cataract surgery in and around Birmingham can typically vary between £130 and £500, depending on your choice of surgeon. The average typical fee is £224.
Paying through insurance
There are two ways of paying for treatment. First is through private medical insurance, or PMI. Most insurance policies will cover cataract surgery unless it is a pre-existing condition. However, it’s important to check in with your insurer at each stage of the journey to check what is covered and whether these is any excess. For more information, you can read our guide to paying for treatment through insurance.
Alternatively, you can self-fund your treatment directly. The traditional way of self-funding treatment is through ‘fee-per-service’, where you’ll be invoiced separately by the consultant surgeon, the consultant anaesthetist, and the hospital. This can be complex and difficult to get a guide price before receiving treatment. For more information about paying through insurance, see our guide.
Self-funding cataract surgery
The simpler and easier way to self-pay is through an inclusive ‘packaged price’. Here the full guide price is outlined before treatment, and this will include the fees for your surgeon, anaesthetist and the hospital’s charges.
In Birmingham 11 of the 18 hospitals offering private cataract surgery offers a package price which can be found on their website. The remaining, which includes the NHS hospitals offering private treatment in the area, may still be able to offer a package price if you phone them up.
The cost of package price deals differs by hospital and the price will depend on what is included.
The least expensive options at the time of writing were West Midlands Private Hospital and Stourside Hospital which both advertise a standard cataract treatment price of £2,559 per eye.
The highest price is the Nuffield Health Warwickshire Hospital, which advertises a guide price of around £3,200. However, this is inclusive of pre-assessment tests as well as post-discharge care.
It’s important to research the costs of treatment, and ask exactly what is included, even if you are opting for a package price for your cataract surgery.
For more information about self-funding treatment, see our guide to self-pay.
Important notes
The information in this article is based on hospitals within 25 miles of the centre of Birmingham, and the consultants that treat private patients at each hospital, which are available to search through PHIN’s website. If a hospital or consultant is not searchable on our website, this may be because they are in breach of legal duties set out by the Competition and Markets Authority.
The data is based on PHIN’s data on patient admissions that took place between 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023. The costs of initial consultant fees were provided directly by consultants to PHIN. Information on guide package prices was collected through an internet search of local hospitals.
This article was last updated on 15 March 2024, and some details may have changed since.
