I was most sad to hear about the untimely loss of the excellent Karen Sparrow. My first proper dealings with her were taking part in a course she had organised at the old AOP offices that focused on eye care in developing countries. Somehow, she had managed to get together key figures in healthcare from around the world for what was one of the best sessions I have ever attended. Years later, her enthusiasm got me interested in the PEEK Vision programme for which she was a global manager. Karen always saw the bigger picture. She will be greatly missed.
I am sure it is just idle gossip, but I heard this week that waiting times for cataract surgery are now up to four years in Northern Ireland. Could this be true? I have seen a number of elderly people struggling with their cataract-related sight loss recently, their surgery delayed as non-urgent in these Covid times. One man had originally been booked for extraction prior to the first lockdown but his raging, untreated blepharitis forced a postponement. He can now barely see. A timely reminder to us all of the need to manage this common condition.
I referred one of the elderly people to a falls team, again quite a challenge in these skewed times. The College has done some good work here, reminding us all how fear of falling in the sight impaired greatly restricts activity and that awareness of local falls services among primary care clinicians is essential. Do you know about your local falls team?
Finally, do any of you remember the days when cannabis was still being used by some as a hypotensive agent. By the 1980s, the IOP-lowering properties of the drug were no longer felt to outweigh concerns about toxicity and psychological impact. Interesting, then, to see a paper out last week that highlighted how cannabis may be protective against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.1