A new framework for the habilitation and rehabilitation of adults and children with low vison has been launched by the Clinical Council for Eye Health Commissioning (CCEHC).
The CCEHC, which represents clinical professions and charity organisations in the eye-care sector, has called for more joined-up commissioning, which it said would ensure better access and consistency of services for users supported by appropriate equipment and expertise to improve their quality of life.
Services for adults and children are not consistently available across England and do not exist in some areas. This has led to the new cross-sector initiative to ensure quality, reducing service variation, improving equity of access and enhancing outcomes with timely intervention.
Parul Desai, chair of the CCEHC said: ‘Vision rehabilitation is crucial to ensuring that someone who loses their sight remains as independent as possible. A DoH-funded research project has identified that good vision rehabilitation avoids significant health and social care costs; the costs avoided are more than three times the cost of delivering the service.’
Like previous Primary Eye Care Framework documents, emphasis has been placed on promoting integration across primary and community care, hospital eye service, education, social care, and charity and voluntary services to eliminate duplication and waste of resources.
