Call for publication of report on primary care eye services

Charity Fighting Blindness has called for the immediate publication of a long-delayed review of primary care eye services against a backdrop of more than 13,000 patients on waiting lists for eye procedures.

The figure, which relates to inpatient and day cases, is the highest across all specialties and includes 3,553 patients waiting over a year according to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). It also includes more than 400 children, of whom 54 are waiting more than a year.

Consultant opthalmologist David Keegan said eye care has been “constantly under-resourced” in the decade since he returned to work in Ireland in 2006.