News & Views

In a recent interview with BBC Wales, Gwyn Williams warned that a ‘tide of avoidable blindness’ could sweep Wales if eye care services are not reformed. He went on to say that waits for key treatments were ‘the biggest they've ever been’.

Nearly 600,000 people were waiting for ophthalmology treatments in January 2022, the largest waiting list of all NHS specialities, and around 10 per cent of all those on the referral-to-treatment pathway.

Earlier this month, the first-ever Holyrood Eye Health Day was held in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. This was a great opportunity to highlight the challenges facing ophthalmology services in Scotland to Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and the Scottish Government.

Wales has had many problems with the delivery of effective eye care services for a long time, made a lot worse by the challenges of the Covid pandemic, exacerbating backlogs which are potentially putting patient care at risk. The Pyott Report provides recommendations to improve services.

To support the College’s work to address the challenges to long term sustainable patient care created by the growing role of independent sector providers, we are inviting members to join working groups on the cataract referral process and the postoperative pathway.

This is an online event, held by NHS England and NHS Improvement eye care pathways improvement programme, the National Eye Care Recovery and Transformation Programme (NECRTP).

Mel Hingorani is RCOphth Honorary Secretary and Joint Clinical Lead of the National Eye Care Recovery and Transformation Programme (NECRTP) and is a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital. In this article, she reflects in her College capacity on what has been achieved by the programme so far and what still needs to happen.