Bill Harvey: The people’s eye health lottery

The speed with which your cataract may be treated depends on where you live. This stark fact was highlighted in the news last week thanks to a campaign by the RNIB. It represents yet another contribution to the ever-growing disparity between services that I have mentioned before, and is adding to a significant variation between the nature of eye care dependent upon where you live. If this continues, how long before there are different expectations as to the role of the practitioner in different CCGs, just as the role of the optometrist varies between different states in America?

The cataract report revealed that waiting times throughout England vary considerably. Patients can expect to be treated quickest in the Luton area, with an expected time between initial outpatient assessment to treatment of just 15 days. At the other end of the scale, patients in Enfield can expect a wait of 467 days. Should this matter? Well, yet again there is a triumph of the short term over the long term. I am sure Enfield has been able to cut its costs by reducing cataract procedures. However, all the evidence suggests reduced vision contributes to increased risk of physical injury, compromised mental well-being and loss of work days. The long term costs across the board are likely to suffer to ensure a local budgetary target is met.