The Consulting Room: Dealing with backlog

Over the next few months, I hope to use a series of articles to discuss the current state of play in ophthalmology in 2022. Obviously, the effect of Covid-19 looms large and I will deal with the specific features of care for our most pressing diseases such as cataract, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. My first article puts the Covid-19 related backlogs into a more general context.

As I write, we are just past the point two years ago when eye surgery services were beginning to restart after a prolonged lockdown caused by the arrival of Covid-19. During this period only minimal emergency services were provided for eye casualty and for emergency surgery, such as retinal detachment and trauma.