Pensioner keeps eye on NSW minister

A NSW pensioner who feared she would go blind waiting for cataract surgery but was saved by an anonymous benefactor has attended a parliamentary hearing on hospital surgery queues.

Sara Morgan, 79, who has been blind in one eye since the age of 13, was told this year she'd have to wait until March 2016 to be assessed for an operation on her good eye, and then she would then join the waiting list.

A budget estimates hearing was told she was able to have an operation thanks to a wealthy benefactor who heard about her plight via media reports.

"She came to me about that and we went public with that and a millionaire came forward and paid for her procedure because he was moved," Labor MP Walt Secord told the hearing.

Health Minister Jillian Skinner said deciding which patients should be fast-tracked for surgery was a job for doctors, not MPs.

"Ninety-six per cent of patients who are booked for surgery are being seen within clinically appropriate times," Mrs Skinner said.

"It's not for politicians to determine how long individual patients should wait. It's entirely up to the clinicians."