Glaucoma patients are being left to go blind on the NHS due to lengthy delays for appointments, a damning report by watchdog Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has found.
The HSIB said it had found more than 150 patient-safety incidents involving eye conditions reported by the NHS between April 2017 and December 2018 for which problems with monitoring and follow-up appointments were to blame. The watchdog estimated that as many as 22 glaucoma patients a month suffered severe or permanent sight loss because their follow-up appointments did not take place quickly enough.
It was warned that there was inadequate capacity within hospital eye services to meet the needs of glaucoma patients. The HSIB also revealed how the NHS had failed to act on previous warnings dating back more than 10 years.
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