Virendra Sharma MP supports Westminster Eye Health Day

Wednesday 17th November 2021 04:56 EST
 

The theme for World Sight Day (Thursday 14th October) this year was #LoveYourEyes. Our sight is something most of us take for granted – despite the vast majority of people saying in recent polling it is the sense they fear losing the most, more than half never or rarely think about their eye health. This is particularly worrying as fast diagnosis and treatment are crucial to halting the deterioration of eye conditions and preserving vision as much as possible. There is an urgent need to improve access to NHS eye care services. Even before the pandemic, eye health was operating as the busiest outpatient specialty in the NHS, with 7.9 million attendances in 2019/20, and I have seen that 1,255 patients were waiting to start ophthalmology treatment at the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust at the end of August. There seems little doubt that people’s sight will have deteriorated during the pandemic, partly as a result of the delay this has created for diagnosis and treatments. Healthcare companies, the NHS, and charities are already working together to use the power of technology to improve care, free up NHS resources, and better join up existing services to help make sure patients who require urgent care receive treatment as soon as possible.


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