Long waiting lists – exacerbated by the pandemic and increasing patient demand – have created a “glaucoma ticking time bomb,” according a new report from Specsavers.
As highlighted in The State of the UK’s Eye Health 2022, ophthalmology is the busiest outpatient speciality in the NHS, accounting for almost 9 percent of all hospital outpatient appointments in 2019 and 2020. The high demand means that new glaucoma patients have to wait 18 months for an appointment – and the problem is only expected to get worse, with the Royal College of Ophthalmologists anticipating a 44 percent increase in demand by 2035.
More than two million people living with ocular hypertension or glaucoma are at risk of vision loss and, with as many as half of all cases going undiagnosed, the economic cost of sight loss and blindness is expected to hit £2.5bn by 2024.
Ahead of the report, Specsavers commissioned Deloitte Access Economics to find alternative models of care being practiced throughout the UK that could help improve glaucoma treatment and detection more broadly. Deloitte certainly found examples of integrated care pathways delivering high quality glaucoma care, but Specsavers report author Philippa Simkiss concludes that provision, particularly in England, remains fragmented.
And that’s why Specsavers is calling for the standardization of glaucoma patient referrals throughout the UK to counter the current funding model, which “drives regional differences in the roles that optometrists play in glaucoma care.” It also suggests an “enhanced role for optometrists” in England – something more akin to the “well established protocols” found in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales.
“We need to reduce the numbers of patients who need to be seen in secondary care, for example, by using referral filtering models consistently,” commented Doug Perkins, founder of Specsavers. “We also need to increase capacity for those patients through the wider adoption of shared services.”
He added, “Health inequalities have been sharply magnified during the past two years. We all want to improve access to services for those most at risk of avoidable sight loss.”