Parliament asked to consider a national eye health strategy

Calls for a national eye health strategy in England have been made in Parliament by Wealden MP Nusrat Ghani.

Ghani, who chairs an all-party parliamentary group on eye health and vision impairment, argued there were equivalent national strategies for hearing loss and dementia as well as eye health strategies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

She said: ‘NHS England does not give eye health the profile it deserves. [The strategy] would not require additional funding but a commitment to improving the efficiency of eye care services and ensuring consistency across the country.’

MPs highlighted patient waiting times, variations of local commissioning and a cap on drug expenditure as some of the causes of preventable sight loss in the UK.