by Fiona Nicholson, Science Writer
Januar or biennial eye examination. Residents of Scotland are entitled to an NHS eye test every two years. This is free, with annual entitlement, for persons under 16, over 60 or those in full-time education until they are 18 years old. All UK residents are currently entitled to a free eye examination, performed by an optometrist, usually based at the local opticians. y again, and time for the new year’s resolutions. And an important one to consider, is to start to take care of your eyes. It is easy to take the gift of vision for granted, yet the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) tell us that around 250 people every day begin to lose their sight due to any one of a number of health conditions. Eyesight degeneration is often symptomless until the damage is advanced. RNIB statistics suggest that in 2014, around 350,000 people were registered as blind or visually impaired in Scotland. The most recent data from the Scottish government, published in 2010, suggest that there has been a general downward trend in new registrations of blind persons since 2000, with the number of new cases for 2010 down by 7% since the turn of the millennium and much of that can be related to improvements in preventative care and early detection.