The UK's Association of Optometrists (AOP) has launched a national campaign following a Freedom of Information request revealing at least 200 patients have lost their sight due to NHS backlogs since 2019.

With hundreds more unreported cases of sight-loss suspected, the AOP is calling on the UK government to commit to a national eye health strategy enabling more patients to access the care they need quickly and locally. Ophthalmology appointments in England represent the second largest NHS backlog, with 628,502 awaiting treatment, 27,260 of whom have been waiting more than a year. Nearly half (43%) of AOP members have raised serious concerns over the number of patients they are seeing who could lose sight unnecessarily due to waiting lists and cancelled appointments. One report described a patient with wet age-related macular degeneration who was meant to have monthly injections but presented at clinic after three months had passed without an appointment, said the AOP, resulting in the patient losing sight in their affected left eye. 

“We are facing a health emergency. Hospitals are overrun and the NHS is collapsing under patient need. There are good treatments available for common age-related eye conditions like macular degeneration but many Hospital Trusts simply do not have the capacity to deliver services. Optometry is ideally placed to take away some of that burden – optometrists are already qualified to provide many of the extended services needed and are available on every high street, so patients can be treated closer to home,” said AOP chief executive Adam Sampson.