Free guide helps GPs improve eye care knowledge

The Royal College of General Practitioners and the UK Vision Strategy initiative have produced a new guide, Sight Loss in Older People: The Essential Guide for General Practice.

The guide highlights the need and routes for early and appropriate referral, the link between sight loss and other health conditions, and suggests how services provided by general practice can be made more accessible for older people with sight loss.

The release of the guide comes after a recent survey revealed many GPs in the UK were not confident when diagnosing major eye diseases. Just one third (34.1%) of respondents were confident in spotting the symptoms of age-related macular degeneration, with only half of GPs confident in recognizing diabetic retinopathy (48.8%), glaucoma (51.2%), or refractive error (49.3%).

Sight Loss in Older People: The Essential Guide for General Practice, can be downloaded here.