In Focus: Bleak future for eye health without urgent action

A glaucoma emergency is gripping the UK in the wake of rapidly rising demand since the pandemic, Specsavers said in the 2022 State of the UK’s Eye Health Report, published to coincide with World Sight Day on October 13.

Patients were being failed by the system, the multiple said, with some experiencing irreversible sight loss while on waiting lists. Approximately 633,000 people were waiting for NHS ophthalmology appointments in May 2022, according to Specsavers’ research. More than a third had not been seen within 18 weeks, the maximum waiting time set out in the NHS constitution, while 24,200 people had been waiting longer than a year. Although the pandemic and its restrictions has caused these rates to rise rapidly, the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) compounded the issue with a prediction that demand for glaucoma services would increase by 44% by 2035.