Exclusive: Thousands unprotected from vision loss after Covid-19 weakens crucial health service

Anne Niulesā lost her sight to poorly controlled diabetes. Other Kiwis are at risk. Photo / Michael Craig

Thousands of New Zealanders are caught in delays for health checks that could save their eyesight, a Weekend Herald investigation has found.

Clinicians at one major DHB have reported an increase in people turning up with vision-threatening disease when their eyes are finally checked for damage from diabetes which, if poorly controlled, can cause sight loss and blindness.

That can be prevented through regular eye checks, to detect any beginnings of damage to the retina and, through subsequent treatment, prevent the loss of vision.

Data obtained by the Weekend Herald indicates at least 66,000 people with diabetes aren't getting free eye checks, and that number could be higher. In some areas already-poor screening coverage has gone backwards after Covid-19.

Lockdowns have also worsened delays for those who are enrolled. More than 9200 people are overdue for screening in Waitematā DHB, which covers West and north Auckland.

The DHB has pledged a big increase in funding to clear backlogs and increase coverage, and says there's a "very low" risk of people losing sight while waiting, because of triaging. However, some clinicians dispute that.

"In the past year there has been a large increase in the number of patients having their screening delayed, and when they do turn up they more often have vision-threatening disease," says Dr Peter Hadden, chairman of the New Zealand branch of the Royal Australian and NZ College of Ophthalmologists, which has members at Waitematā.

Screening is the responsibility of each of the country's 20 DHBs. The Ministry of Health has a target of regular checks for 90 per cent of people living with diabetes, but doesn't monitor or record performance against this.

Data obtained under the Official Information Act reveals that, in fact, most DHBs are screening only 45 to 65 per cent. Some health boards didn't provide an estimate.

That worries Anne Niulesā, who as a 37-year-old woke up completely blind, a complication of her Type 2 diabetes. She agreed to tell her story to raise awareness.

"I felt alone. Isolated. Coming to terms with my reality was just unbearable. I cried myself to sleep," Niulesā said of the weeks after she went blind in January 2017.

"I think of what it's done to me, and if it was to happen to someone else, what effect that might have on their friends, their family, their circles."