Children face eye treatment delays

Concern over delays in providing eye care

A shortage of eye specialists in some parts of Scotland means children are having to wait up to a year for treatment.

The delay has prompted calls for greater funding to tackle the problem.

Waiting times at two hospitals in Glasgow used to be five weeks.

However, with only two consultant ophthalmologists operating at Yorkhill Hospital for Sick Children and at Gartnavel General Hospital, patients can expect to wait up to 50 weeks.

In some cases, eye defects such as squints can be caused by something as serious as tumours and there is concern that children's health is being put at risk because of under-resourcing in the field.

Officials at Greater Glasgow Health Board are being called upon to explain the staffing crisis and to press for greater funding.

Lowest levels

The head of orthoptics at Gartnavel, Alison Buchanan, said the matter needs to be addressed urgently.

Before the present crisis, waiting times over the past six years had been at their lowest ever levels.

The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) says there can be a wide variation in services for people with poor vision throughout the United Kingdom.

A report published last year by RNIB and Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, found that there were few or no services available in Wales, western Scotland and south-west England, which have a higher than average number of people with vision problems.

However, in London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool there were much better services.