50,000 awaiting eye treatments, many of them for 18 months

Some 50,000 people were on waiting lists for eye procedures at the end of last year, many of them for 18 months.

Of that number, 40,000 were on outpatient lists — up from 32,823 in 2016 — while 13,812 of these people were waiting more than a year and 7,589 more than 18 months.

The Association of Optometrists (AOI) says that eye-care services need to change urgently to meet ever-growing demand: 11,150 people were awaiting hospital procedures at the end of 2017, the second-largest inpatient list of any medical speciality.

The AOI is calling for radical overhaul in the provision of specialist eye care and says its 600 members should be allowed to take on more cases in the community, leaving hospitals free to look after only the most complex cases.

AOI chief executive Sean McCrave said: “Hospital eye departments cannot, and will not, meet patient, ever-growing demand.

“In the UK and across Europe, there has been an increasing move towards community based eye-care, and that is where Ireland, too, needs to go.”

Mr McCrave said one-fifth of the outpatient waiting list concerned cataracts, which could be alleviated by rolling out nationwide a scheme that has been operating successfully in the north-west for the past eight years.

AOI is calling for national roll-out of the Sligo Post-Cataract Scheme, which has proven highly successful in reducing waiting times and costs in the north-west.

“Under the scheme, cataract patients’ follow-up appointment is co-managed by optometrists in the community, and ophthalmologists in hospital,” said Mr McCrave. “With over 20,000 cataract procedures a year, rolling out the Sligo protocol nationally would reduce out-patient cataract appointments by up to 20,000, with no capital expenditure.”

Under the scheme, optometrists are provided with access to the hospital IT infrastructure and electronic patient records, and given training on the specific protocol to follow.

“Instead of two, separate follow-up appointments — one in the hospital and one with the community optometrist — patients are given the option of a single appointment with their local optometrist,” said Mr Mc-Crave. “This can be made at the patient’s convenience.

“This combined appointment facilitates the optometrist to examine the eye and carry out a refraction in one appointment, and then enter the details on the electronic patient record held in the hospital.

“With over 20,000 procedures a year, rolling out the Sligo protocol nationally would reduce out-patient cataract appointments by approximately 20,000, at reduced cost, with no capital expenditure.”

An AOI adviser and optometrist, Lynda McGivney-Nolan, who helped devise the scheme, said it has been a huge success.

“It started out as a pilot scheme in Sligo, but now covers the whole of the north-west,” said Ms McGivney-Nolan.

“We have more than 100 optometrists taking part, at this stage, and we have not had a single adverse event, since the scheme started eight years ago. That is a pretty good record.”