In Focus: Call for joined-up approach in eye care

Glaucoma and community optometry was considered at a Westminster Hall debate on April 30 after being raised by Jim Shannon MP. Shannon, who is the Democratic Union Party’s spokesperson for health, called for MPs to do something about this issue now to save sight further down the line. He noted that while his constituents in Strangford, Northern Ireland, asked him to raise this issue, sight loss problems were evident across the UK.

‘I understand that health is devolved in all the regions, but it is clear that we need joined-up thinking to a joint problem,’ he said. Shannon highlighted that visual impairment and sight loss cost the economy £36bn each year and 22 people lost their vision to preventable causes each week. We can work alongside the optometrists and the opticians and have a partnership whereby people can have their eyesight tests done more often,’ Shannon said.