Growing waiting list for eye care outpatient appointments

THE waiting list for outpatient eye appointments is growing.

More than 41,000 people were on the outpatient eye-care waiting list at the end of last year, a rise of 1,700 from 2017, data released to Irish optometrists has shown.

Of those waiting at the end of December 2018, 16,200 of these were waiting more than a year, while 10,500 had been waiting more than 18 months.

Seán McCrave, chief executive of the Association of Optometrists Ireland, said Ireland’s eye-care services must be reformed to meet growing demand.

‘While there was a welcome reduction in the inpatients list, and the rate of increase in the outpatient list is slowing, the mismatch between demand and availability remains enormous,’ he said, adding that there needs to be more focus on public care provided by optometrists in the community and specialised care by ophthalmologists in hospitals. ‘In Ireland, we have an overreliance on hospital ophthalmology departments. This is a flawed approach.’

AOI president Patricia Dunphy said cataract surgeries account for a significant proportion of the backlog. ‘A survey by AOI in 2018 found that there are waiting times of up to five years in some parts of the country for cataract surgery,’ she said.

A spokesperson for the HSE said significant inroads were made on the ophthalmology inpatient day case list last year with a reduction of 16% in the total numbers waiting for ophthalmology procedures.

They also said that the HSE is targeting its waiting list under the 2019 action plan.