Hundreds of people have lost their sight waiting for NHS treatment as huge backlogs continue
10.05.2023 - 15:47
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Hundreds of people have lost their sight or had it irrevocably damaged because of treatment delays, recent figures have suggested - making it vital that patients know how to get seen quickly for eyecare.
NHS England figures, released in March following a Freedom of Information request from the Association of Optometrists (AOP), showed 551 patients have reported a loss in sight due to delayed appointments since 2019. The loss in sight for over 200 of those patients resulted in 'moderate to serious harm', with the AOP alleging hundreds of cases have gone unreported.
In England, alone, there are over 600,000 people waiting for eye appointments, almost 30,000 of those who’ve been waiting for a year or more, the BBC has reported. And amid these delays that can have a huge impact on the state of patients' eyes, the NHS in Greater Manchester is revealing a way to beat the wait.
READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community
Latest figures reveal 628,502 people are waiting for ophthalmology appointments – the second largest NHS backlog, equating to one in every 11 patients on an NHS waiting list. The AOP has calling on the government to stop this 'health emergency' and commit to a national eye strategy to provide care to more patients in the community.
ITV reported that Chief Executive of the AOP, Adam Sampson, said: “We are facing a health emergency. Hospitals are overrun, and the NHS is collapsing under patient need. There are good treatments available for common age-related eye conditions like macular degeneration but many Hospital Trusts simply do not have the capacity to deliver services.
"Optometry is ideally placed to take away some of that burden – optometrists are already qualified to provide