ALT • Ensure consistent commissioning of eye health services by ICBs in primary care to reduce pressures on secondary care. • Fund the collection of national population data on blindness and visual impairment to better understand why people in the UK are losing their sight due to preventable causes, and why people continue to live with correctable visual impairments. I believe investment in these areas will reduce the NHS backlog, prevent avoidable sight loss, and ensure the delivery of good quality eye health care that everyone can access, when and where they need it. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely, Marsha de Cordova MP for Battersea
ALT • Ensure consistent commissioning of eye health services by ICBs in primary care to reduce pressures on secondary care. • Fund the collection of national population data on blindness and visual impairment to better understand why people in the UK are losing their sight due to preventable causes, and why people continue to live with correctable visual impairments. I believe investment in these areas will reduce the NHS backlog, prevent avoidable sight loss, and ensure the delivery of good quality eye health care that everyone can access, when and where they need it. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely, Marsha de Cordova MP for Battersea
ALT The Problem: It isn't just eyecare patients who lose out - we all do. Inefficient eyecare creates avoidable eyesight loss, rendering patients dependent and increasing care needs further down the line. The underusage of community optometrists means unnecessary visits to already overstrained A&E and GP services. Annual economic cost of sightloss: £36 billion.
ALT The Problem: Eyecare in England is a postcode lottery, with huge variations in how a person can access a eyehealth screening, is referred to a specialist, receives a diagnosis and then treatment. Existing provision is disproportionately concentrated in urban areas. Many are not getting the care they need and thousands are stuck on waiting lists. Current eyecare backlogs: 650,000 (10% of all NHS waiting lists).
