Eye patients turned away from hospital

By ELIZABETH BINNING

More than 2000 patients are being sent back to their family doctor with itchy eyes and droopy lids because Auckland City Hospital is too busy to treat them.

Following a steady rise in the number of people needing treatment for eye problems the Auckland District Health Board has decided to take on only urgent and semi-urgent cases.

That means people with conditions that do not threaten their vision - such as watery or itchy eyes, cataracts that do not affect driving or benign growths over the cornea - will be sent back to their GP for care.

Hospital general manager Nigel Murray said the number of eye patients had risen steadily during the past 18 months.

The hospital was dealing with up to 50 extra eye cases each month. As a result, less-urgent patients who had already been seen at least once and prioritised, were being pushed to the bottom of the list.

Dr Murray said some patients had been waiting up to 18 months but were not any closer to treatment because there were hundreds of other more urgent cases.

"We want to work with the primary sector to see how we can help manage these [non-urgent] patients and assist with their treatment so they don't just sit on a list," said Dr Murray.

"By referring them back to their GP they go under an active review and if anything worsens they can be referred back to us for triage."

Dr Murray said people on the waiting list would be assessed by a consultant ophthalmologist. Those considered not urgent, around 2000 patients, would be sent letters advising them to return to their local doctor for care.

Dr Murray said the rising number of patients was possibly due to the aging population and age-related illnesses such as diabetes which could affect eyesight. Other centres had been reporting similar growth he said.

Foundation of the Blind chief executive Paula Daye said eye problems were prevalent in the elderly.

The issue of treatment needed to be dealt with now, not referred back to GPs.

"We believe people should have their eye problems checked in a timely manner," she said.

"We are not convinced that [sending patients back to GPs] is a good action. It may reduce the health board waiting lists but we don't see this as being a help to people with eye problems."