College welcomes Welsh Health Secretary’s new funding to reduce waiting times for hospital eye care

“We welcome the NHS funding package announced last week by Jeremy Miles, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care in Wales, aimed at reducing patient waiting times and waiting lists over the next 12 months. Recent data shows that nearly half of patients waiting for eye care in Wales have already waited over 36 weeks for treatment. The new funding includes plans to deliver an additional 20,000 cataract operations, which is critical for reducing treatment waiting times and preventing unnecessary loss of vision.

“We also welcome ambitions to streamline pathways to care and the removal of unnecessary steps that don’t add value to a patient’s care. Four weeks following a cataract operation, a patient needs an eye examination to assess how well the patient can see, to review whether they are safe to drive, to review their prescription, and to provide reassurance of the surgical outcome. These appointments can be delivered by optometrists in primary care, enabling patients to be treated in the community and freeing up additional hospital appointment times to treat more patients.”