Moneo Writes

The recent white paper on public health makes absolutely no mention whatsoever of eyesight and eye health anywhere. This is scandalous. It suggests that no one has even considered eye health in the drafting of this white paper. If this is the case, we as a profession should hold them to account publicly. Eye health problems account for very large sums of money and, more than that, are responsible for a great deal of social exclusion that blights people's lives daily. Is all of this now deemed acceptable by this government?

There are many who work very hard at national and local level to raise the profile of eyesight and eye health, but the total lack of any mention of eye care in the white paper just shows what a very long way we have to go in influencing people. Too many people in this country never consider their vision as a potential problem and a possible cause of social isolation at some stage in the future. As eye care professionals we should be outraged by this omission from such an important document. The sad fact is that I doubt many even know of its existence let alone care about what it doesn't say.