RAISE YOUR SIGHTS
Treatment delays, mean hundreds of us are experiencing irreversible vision loss every year. So are we being short-sighted when it comes to our eyes. healthy investigates…
WORDS BETH GIBBONS
Photographs Getty, John Frost Newspapers
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
‘Our vision is probably the one sense people fear losing the most,’ says Professor William Ayliffe, a consultant ophthalmologist at The Lister Hospital, London, who lectures widely on the prevention of blindness. ‘Yet, few people give much thought to protecting their sight.’ In fact, 20 million of us in the UK don’t get our eyes tested regularly, according to the Eyecare Trust.
Recent reports indicate the NHS would get a must-try-harder report, too. Overstretched eye clinics and delays in treatment mean around 500 people in England and Wales experienced loss or serious deterioration of vision between 2011 and 2013, reports a central database of patient incident.
Professor Ayliffe is deeply concerned. ‘Around 10 per cent of all outpatient appointments are for eye care, and yet the allocation of resources by the Department of Health doesn’t reflect this. The number of opthalmologists has remained static in the last five years, while patient attendance rates have increased by 30 per cent.’ A situation described by the president of The Royal College of Ophthalmologists, Professor Carrie MacEwen, as ‘a perfect storm’.