Cost of living delays health checks
Nursing student forced to ignore declining eyesight
Lexi Sewell is in her final year of nursing studies at EIT, but she is struggling under the pressure of New Zealand’s rising cost of living. Working 40 hours a week unpaid during her emergency department placement at Hawke’s Bay Hospital, Sewell, 21, says she has no time to pick up extra work, and the weekly $200 she receives from StudyLink barely covers her rent.
With keeping a roof over her head and food in her stomach top priorities, Sewell has had to ignore her declining eyesight.
“If the cost of basic necessities wasn’t so high, I’d be wearing glasses already.”
The last time she had her eyes checked she was quite young, still living at home and her parents were able to cover the cost. Now as a student who needs her eyesight, she can’t afford the check-up or possibly glasses due to the increasing cost of living.
“I feel like I do definitely need to get my eyes checked and financially I am just not able to and it’s not a top priority when I have to pay rent and buy groceries,” she said.
Hawke’s Bay optometrists say Sewell isn’t the only one prioritising everyday living costs over their eyesight. A recent Specsavers survey shows “more than a third of Kiwis (38 per cent) have delayed or cancelled a health check due to increasing financial pressure, leaving themselves at greater risk of developing conditions that could be silently progressing and increasing the longterm health impacts”.
Specsavers optometrist Sung Hyun Park said regular eye tests were essential for picking up conditions that can be characterised by a lack of symptoms, such as diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, or macular degeneration. “If left untreated, these can lead to severe complications and even vision loss, which is a much more irreversible cost,” Hyun Park said.
Sewell is already starting to feel the strain of not getting a check-up and says while her eyesight may not be prohibiting her from her nursing career, it definitely makes things harder, especially with the regular headaches she has been getting.
In the hope of lessening her discomfort, Sewell resorted to a cheap pair of 1+ reading glasses from the chemist.
“They do help but I don’t think they are the right prescription or a longterm fix and I definitely need to get a test.” The constantly rising cost of living has, at times, made her want to discontinue her studies.
“The pressure is so high, sometimes I wish I wasn’t studying so I can make money and look after myself, especially right now where I’m in a placement and I can’t earn any money.”
One of the things keeping Sewell going is the fact the cost of living crisis is impacting most people and she feels like everyone is in the same boat, “whether that be a doctor, dentist or other necessary expenses that people are ignoring”.
She says with the way the price of everything keeps going up she will have to wait until he has finished schooling and secured a job, which may take up to six months or more after graduating before she can become financially stable.
“I find as long as it’s manageable to get through my day to day, I’ll put off health checks to cut down my weekly spending,” she said.