Government finds extra cash for DHBs to help solve eye-care crisis

The Ministry of Health is giving district health boards an extra $2 million for eye care. Photo / 123rf

The Government has found an extra $2 million to help deal with its crisis in eye care, in which some patients have gone blind.

The Health Ministry is giving district health boards the money to spend by next June, "to assist DHBs to develop, implement or improve care models to best support their district's eye health", said senior ministry official Jill Lane.

The College of Ophthalmologists welcomed the financial top-up.

Last month, the college, representing eye doctors, said that tens of thousands of patients may be at risk of losing the sight of an eye because of delays in getting appointments at DHBs.

It criticised the need to comply with the four-month target for First Specialist Assessments at the expense of follow-up appointments, appealing for the flexibility to prioritise patients based on medical need.

The Health Quality and Safety Commission said there had been a "notable increase" in the number of eye patients suffering harmful adverse events, based on reports by the Southern and Nelson Marlborough DHBs.

Thirty patients had suffered partial sight loss in 2015/16 because of Southern DHB delays.

One of the problems has been the increasing demand on services because of the success of a new treatment, namely the cancer medicine Avastin, in treating macular degeneration.

College spokesman Dr Stephen Ng said the extra money would make a big difference to patients.

"That is a very positive sign that the Government is taking seriously the problem of increasing demand for ophthalmology services - caused by an ageing population, increasing rates of diabetes and innovations that mean more eye conditions can be treated and more cases of blindness prevented."

"With Government targets prioritising initial specialist appointments, [increasing demand] meant that follow-up appointments were being delayed, causing some people to suffer deteriorating vision, and even blindness, which could have otherwise been prevented."

College president Associate Professor Mark Daniell said, "This funding will help to clear the backlog of delayed follow-up appointments and help prevent any more people going unnecessarily blind due to delays."

Lane, the ministry's director of service commissioning, said the $2 million was a short-term measure in the ministry's ongoing work to improve eye services.

"The ministry wrote to DHBs this week reinforcing support for improving capacity and demand management and that collaboration will be ongoing."

Officials would help DHBs with how to prioritise patients and development of a nationally consistent approach to follow-up care.