Verum writes: People get ready

It is not news that we have an increasingly elderly population and with this comes an increase in eye health-related diseases such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. Our future planning for optometric and dispensing manpower and skills focuses on the pathways to manage these and other diseases when they are in their active phase requiring diagnosis, monitoring and treatment.

It follows that ageing patients will also mean there are more patients who are living with sight loss in the future. According to the RNIB there are around one third of a million people registered as blind or partially sighted and over two million who live with some sight loss that impacts on their daily lives, predicted to rise to 2.2 million by the year 2020 and double to four million by 2050. Given the size of these numbers it is a surprise that this is an area of optical practice that is not given the attention and forward thinking it deserves – at least that is my perception.