Charity aims to encourage the prioritization of sight loss in NHS

More attention should be paid to dealing with sight loss, claims a new report created by ocular charity Visionary.

The research is based on an evaluation of 68 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) completed by the charity. The results revealed a significant difference in the level and quality of treatment administered across the UK.

Visionary is encouraging the NHS Commissioning Board to take action to ensure eye care is equally prioritized nationwide. The NHS initiative Action on Cataract aimed to perform 3200 cataract procedures per 100000 in patients over 65 years of age. However, the latest findings show that 11 PCTs in the UK are not reaching this target.

Angela Tinker, Chief Executive of Visionary, commented, "It is frightening that in the modern health service the reality is you could lose your sight despite there being effective treatments available. People should not be made to live with the devastating effects of sight loss or impairment simply because of where they live."

"At a local level we want to make sure systems are in place in the new NHS to help people get the right treatment fast. At the national level we want to ensure that the power is in place to redress the imbalance in the current postcode lottery to avoid unnecessary sight impairment and sight loss which seems inevitable in the current conditions."