Tricia Sail’s inspirational and moving story on her experience with uveitis and subsequent sight loss should be anyone’s first port of call from this week’s issue.
The winner of television competition programme Race Across the World (along with lifelong best friend Cathie Rowe) talks about the period where she began to lose her sight and coming to terms with it. Sail’s experience of feeling isolated following her diagnosis will be familiar to many, but so too will be the positive effect the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) had on her life.
It was frustrating, therefore, to read research from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) that found people with sight loss are being left confused by the process of registration and certification.
Lead author, Professor Shahina Pardhan, director of the Vision and Eye Research Institute at ARU, said: ‘More timely, efficient and effective provision of information, advice and signposting to relevant support services in local social care and third sector organisations, along with more informed decisions around certification and registration by eye health professionals, will benefit patients and improve their wellbeing and quality of life.’
Better provision of information relating to the individual’s condition and the support services available is sadly something that has been called for many times before. The Macular Society has many accounts of patients leaving high street optical practices with an AMD diagnosis and nothing but a hurried explanation about the condition. No details of what it means for the patient and no signposting to some of the excellent support services provided by the Macular Society, RNIB and many other organisations and charities.
These cases are thankfully in the minority and some patients will have the feeling of being let down by hospitals instead of high street optometrists. However, the simple fact is that a consistent approach to diagnosis and signposting will help end prolonged experiences of isolation and provide a better quality of life for thousands of others.
