Girl partly blinded after delay
A child was left blind in one eye after an Auckland clinic failed to treat her deteriorating vision in time, a tribunal has found.
Manukau Superclinic took almost three years to provide follow-up eye care to the girl due to appointment delays, according to a recent decision from the Human Rights Review Tribunal.
In the decision, Counties Manukau DHB, which operated the specialist eye service, said it struggled to meet high demand from patients.
The girl was five years old when she was was first seen by an ophthalmologist in December 2006, following a preschool eye test. She was treated, monitored and discharged in May 2007.
She was seen again in 2012 by her community optometrist, who found that her vision sharpness had deteriorated. She was referred to the Manukau Superclinic for assessment.
The clinic graded her referral as a priority 3, which meant she needed to see a specialist within three months. However, it was amended by hand to indicate that she should be seen within two months.
In November 2012, the patient, now 11, was seen in the Manukau Superclinic and diagnosed with possible progressive thinning of the cornea. She was given eyedrops and recommended to return to the optician in a year for a checkup.
However, the checkup appointment did not go ahead due to staffing issues.
A rescheduled checkup for December 2014 was missed after the family did not receive the appointment.
The family tried to rebook the appointment, but as there were no available times, the patient was put on the waiting list.
The girl was reviewed by the consultant ophthalmologist at the Manukau Superclinic in August 2015. Here, it was determined that her vision was ‘‘significantly reduced’’ and she had very advanced keratoconus, or thinning of the cornea.
The young patient received an operation to correct the vision in her left eye in October 2015, more than three years after she was initially told of her problems.
Her right eye was beyond treatable, and she is now technically blind.
The Human Rights Review Tribunal found that Manukau Superclinic failed to provide services with reasonable care and skill. In the decision, Counties Manukau DHB acknowledged that it had struggled to meet significant demand growth for progressive eye conditions, which can result in irreversible blindness if not treated effectively.
‘‘The services were unable to meet demand due to the volume of patients, which exceeded both capacity, staffing and was not funding adequately,’’ it stated.
The Ministry of Health has been working to address demand issues with district health boards which have a backlog of eye patients, including Counties Manukau DHB.