Nine times out of 10, a mainstream BBC Breakfast feature on a health condition with growing prevalence among children would be welcomed by the relevant healthcare profession.
So the backlash following the College of Optometrist’s involvement in a recent segment on the increasing number of children being diagnosed with myopia seemed a little strange. ‘Where were the details of myopia management interventions?’ asked disgruntled practitioners on social media. ‘A colleague had a patient cancel further myopia management because of this statement,’ claimed another. The condemnation was fairly widespread.
But is the College getting the rough end of the stick? Possibly. The College has said it was invited on the feature to talk about screen time, visiting local optometrists and spending time outdoors. It was not, however, asked to respond directly to myopia management. In the final edit, myopia management clinical lead Sarah Douglas didn’t even get the chance to highlight myopia management. The College said much of what its clinical adviser told the BBC wasn’t included either.
So why would the BBC not want to highlight the various interventions to slow the progression of myopia in children? It’s impossible to say definitively (but I have asked), although there are a few reasons why the subject might not get top billing. The elephant in the room is cost. For every parent that will want the very best for their child, there will be one that is unwilling or unable to go beyond voucher value. Myopia management options cost a significant amount of money, and while it’s easy to think that parents will automatically want to know all of the options available, it isn’t necessarily the BBC’s role to talk about them. By highlighting the wider issue to parents and the general public instead, practitioners now have the opportunity to talk to mums, dads and parents about how best to manage the condition. Is it the College’s role to talk about the different management options? That’s another issue altogether.