Hundreds 'going blind on waiting list'

By REBECCA WALSH health reporter

Hundreds of Aucklanders with diabetes-related eye disease are going blind waiting for treatment, says an Auckland eye specialist.

Eye specialists fear the problem will get worse as medical services try to cope with the growing number of people with preventable Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity, poor diet and lack of exercise.

Ophthalmologist Dr Gillian Clover, who helps with screening programmes for people with diabetes in South Auckland, said detection programmes were identifying people with diabetic retinopathy, but there were insufficient resources to ensure people they had the laser surgery they needed.

The more severe the disease, the harder it was to reverse by laser treatment. Long term, the social and economic impact was significant.

"This disease cannot wait. You have a window of opportunity to treat it effectively and after that it's all decline," she said.

"People are sitting on waiting lists going blind, that is unacceptable."

About a third of the estimated 45,000 people with diabetes in the Auckland region were thought to have diabetic retinopathy - damage to the blood vessels that supply the retina - which could result in partial or total sight loss.

The problem was worse among Maori and Pacific Island people, who had higher rates of diabetes. Many were reluctant to seek help.

Dr Clover, a speaker at an eye conference in Auckland, estimated there were always 200 to 300 Aucklanders on waiting lists for laser surgery. In South Auckland, up to 130 people were waiting at any one time. Some had to wait up to nine months for surgery.

Timeframes established by ophthalmologists and the Ministry of Health stipulated that people with severe disease, whose vision was under immediate threat, were treated in a week.

For less-severe cases the timeframe was up to two months. No public hospital in Auckland could do that.

Dr Sandy Dawson, a clinical adviser for the ministry, said many health boards reported increasing numbers of people having their eyes screened, resulting in a need to increase the number of laser treatments. The proportion needing laser surgery was usually less than 5 per cent.

Chris Mules, chief planning and funding officer for the Counties Manukau District Health Board, said because of concerns about access to retinal screening and laser surgery, a review of services was being carried out as part of a five-year plan to tackle the growing diabetes problem.

He did not know if people were going blind waiting for surgery, but said the review would include that sort of information.

Dr Clover said the Auckland region had only two or three ophthalmologists dedicated to this area and three more were needed, as well as more even distribution of the services.