Of all NHS medical specialties, ophthalmology has the highest number of outpatient appointments, with more than 7.5 million in England in 2021-22, and one of the longest treatment backlogs (RCOphth, 2022).

Recent data on waiting lists highlight an extremely concerning picture. As of September 2022, the number of people in England waiting for a consultant ophthalmologist to treat or diagnose them was more than 650,000 – almost 10% of the entire NHS backlog (RCOphth, 2022). 

But even these stark figures underplay the scale of the crisis. NHS England statistics only include waits for first appointments, not follow-ups, which represented over two-thirds (69%) of all ophthalmology outpatient visits in 2021-22 (RCOphth, 2022). This huge hidden backlog is even more of a worry given that follow-up patients are nine times more likely than new ones to suffer permanent harm from delays to care, in terms of avoidable visual loss (RCOphth, 2022).