Missing appointments risks sight

HUNDREDS of thousands of people are at risk of sight loss due to missed eye appointments.

Pharmaceutical company Novartis said conditions such as wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) could go undiagnosed and untreated.

Latest NHS figures show that since the start of the pandemic, scheduled and attended eye appointments are down by approximately a third. Up to a quarter of people with known wet AMD did not attend a treatment appointment.

Novartis, supported by the cahrity Macular Society, has launched See What’s Next, to encourage people with wet AMD to better manage the disease and maintain independence for longer.

Liz Coombs, 74, from Leicester, has wet AMD in her left eye and dry AMD in her right. By the end of 2019, she had received 45 antiVEGF injections to treat her wet AMD, which she credits as limiting the deterioration in her vision.

The See What’s Next website has details of treatments and practical tips for sufferers.