Fighting blindness with eye care in the community

[caption id="attachment_6534" align="alignnone" width="750"] Dr Paul Kenna, Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Kevin Whelan, CEO, Fighting Blindness, Prof Jane Farrar, Trinity College Dublin, and Dr Laura Brady, Research Officer, Fighting Blindness[/caption] The Irish patient-led charity, Fighting Blindness, has called on the Irish Government to urgently publish the Review of Primary Care Eye Services which would see greater emphasis on eye care services being delivered in the community for stable chronic conditions. The call was made at the Fighting Blindness RETINA 2016 conference. It is estimated that sight loss currently affects more than 246,000 people in Ireland, and this is projected to rise to 272,000 by 20203. Kevin Whelan, Chief Executive Officer, Fighting Blindness, said that the Review of Primary Care Eye Services offers a potential roadmap to providing a more effective service for all patients and addressing waiting lists: "Current ophthalmology waiting list numbers are extremely concerning. They mean that a sight issue will continue to interfere with a person's quality of life for so much longer than is necessary. More particularly, for people with rare degenerative eye conditions, it means that they are not being monitored regularly and so we are not able to learn more about these complex conditions and how they will affect people long-term," he said. The Fighting Blindness Retina 2016 conference was supported by Novartis.

Tags: retina