Scottish policy makers enjoyed a second celebration this week with figures from NHS Scotland’s Information Services Division painting a positive picture of primary eye care in the region.
Since 2006/7 the number of eye examinations in Scotland has risen by 29 per cent from 1.58 million to 2.04m. Changes in legislation in 2010 saw the introduction of the supplementary eye examination which now accounts for 374,000 of the total. The introduction of the supplementary eye exam was accompanied by the introduction of free eye exams for everyone in Scotland.
Perhaps the best news for optometry is the reduced proportion of referrals that have resulted from the changes. In 2006/7 63 per cent of those undergoing an eye examination were not referred. This rose to 80 per cent in the year 2013/4.
The most common referral path is to an eye hospital with ISD’s figures showing 12,000, or one per cent, were referred to hospital in 2006/7. This rose to three per cent of 55,000 in the year 2013/4.
General practice saw the number of referrals it received drop in absolute terms from 29,000 to 26,000 over the same period despite the increase in eye examinations. That 29 per cent increase in eye examinations also had little effect on the number of vouchers issued. This has risen slightly but hovered around the 500,000 level for each year in the period under review.
A massive increase in the number of patients with sight threatening conditions was revealed over the period. The number recorded as having glaucoma or hypertension doubled to nearly 60,000 while the number of patients identified as diabetic rose by nearly half to around 130,000.
One of the other trends highlighted in the figures is the rise of 35 per cent in the number of domiciliary visits. These have risen from 37,000 in 2006/7 to 50,000 in 2013/4, this is put down to the ageing population. This trend is expected to rise with the Health and Social Care integration bill.