THE Royal Bolton Hospital's prestigious eye unit has been given national recognition by becoming one of the first "eye retrieval" units in the country.

The eye unit is just one of five in the country to become part of a new scheme to increase the number of cornea donations, and is the only hospital in the North-west to have been chosen.

The unit's task is to boost the number of cornea donors in Bolton which will, in turn, increase the number of cornea transplants carried out across Britain.

Fourteen hospital trusts applied for the honour and nurses Fiona Wilkinson and Elsie Fish were instrumental in Bolton being chosen.

The hospital will receive £70,000 a year from UK Transplant, which promotes organ donation, and two nurses will be recruited to increase the number of people willing to donate their corneas when they die.

Corneas are used to give back sight to patients who can barely see, often through conditions such as cataracts. The intricate operation involves the disc on the front of the eye being replaced during micro-surgery lasting about an hour.

Dr Jeff Kwartz has been instrumental to Bolton becoming one of the country's best eye units by getting cornea transplants off the ground at the hospital.

The unit has carried out 59 transplants since 1998 and patients are out of hospital in a day.

Dr Kwartz said: "I'm very proud of the eye unit and all its staff, as well as the transplant team. It's a real achievement and confirms that Bolton's eye unit is the top of all the acute trusts in the country.

"People are not often aware that, even if other organs are not fit for donations, eyes often are. It does not matter how old you are, they can still help to give someone else the wonderful gift of sight."

A spokesman from UK Transplant said: "We hope to vastly increase the number of sight-giving cornea transplants performed in the UK. The effect of a cornea transplant can be as dramatic as a solid organ donation because it is giving someone back their sight.

"We know there are lots of people out there who want to donate organs to give the gift of sight and life after they are gone. We hope this scheme brings those wishes about."

The other hospitals joining Bolton as one of the first eye retrieval units are: Norfolk & Norwich, the Queen Victoria in South-east England, Newcastle and Bristol.

FACTFILE

The new eye unit opened at what was the Bolton General Hospital at a cost of £1.2 million;

Patients waiting for cataracts operations now only have to wait three months. In 1999, the waiting list was 10 months;

Last year 6,000 people were seen by the retinal screening service. Three years ago, that figure was 1,500;

More than 2,000 corneal transplants are carried out each year and Bolton has carried out 59 of those;

Bolton's first corneal transplant was carried out on 78-year-old Tom Tomlinson in January 1997.