View from the AIO: We need a centrally-driven eye care strategy

Jim Shannon MP, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Eye Health and Visual Impairment, presented at the AIO Conference in Cambridge on October 2, 2017. Mr Shannon explained that while APPGs do not have any law making powers, they exist to inform and educate parliamentarians and in the case of the APPG he chairs, to highlight the importance of high quality eye care to prevent eye disease, sight loss and blindness.

The APPG is in the midst of a parliamentary inquiry into NHS eye care services and avoidable sight loss in England and has called for evidence from patients, clinicians and professional bodies for the report to be published in 2018. There would seem to be an implicit recognition Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are well ahead of England in delivering strategies to prevent eye disease.