Very exciting news! The Government has included a measure of eye health in its national public health priorities for England. Although I realise that you may not find this to be quite as exciting as I do, bear with me for a moment while I explain.
This is the first time ever that Government has committed to tackling preventable sight loss. It puts eye health on a par with other big, more recognisable public health priorities such as smoking cessation and cancer detection. And because it’s now on this list of public health priorities, it means that both nationally and locally public health commissioners have to understand eye health needs in their area, deliver services to tackle preventable sight loss and report on how well they are doing.
Of course, we all know that needs assessments, plans and tracking progress don’t necessarily translate into better eye health for the public. But what it does do is to put eyes on the public health map, and means patients and clinicians can hold commissioners to account. So my excitement is that that this could open up many new opportunities for optometrists to engage with the public health agenda.
We have doggedly reminded them that vision is the sense that most people fear losing. That depression is associated with sight loss. That the risk of falls increases with sight loss. And that most importantly, half of all sight loss is preventable. All the things that we, as eye health professionals, are well aware of, but things that those outside of the sector may not know. It has been an impressive and well coordinated campaign from the sector that could act as a real turning point in the fight to improve the nation’s eye health.
I am proud to have personally been a part of this effort and proud of the work that the College has done. Working with Government is not always easy, but when it goes well it is incredibly satisfying!
A public health first!
Author: Cindy Tromans Posted: 26 January 2012
Very exciting news! The Government has included a measure of eye health in its national public health priorities for England. Although I realise that you may not find this to be quite as exciting as I do, bear with me for a moment while I explain.
This is the first time ever that Government has committed to tackling preventable sight loss. It puts eye health on a par with other big, more recognisable public health priorities such as smoking cessation and cancer detection. And because it’s now on this list of public health priorities, it means that both nationally and locally public health commissioners have to understand eye health needs in their area, deliver services to tackle preventable sight loss and report on how well they are doing.
Of course, we all know that needs assessments, plans and tracking progress don’t necessarily translate into better eye health for the public. But what it does do is to put eyes on the public health map, and means patients and clinicians can hold commissioners to account. So my excitement is that that this could open up many new opportunities for optometrists to engage with the public health agenda.
This announcement comes after months of work by the College and other bodies - the UK Vision Strategy, the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, and the Optical Confederation have all been in ongoing conversations with Ministers and the Department of Health about the importance of eye health and how this kind of measure could work. For instance, as part of our efforts I attended a meeting with the Minister for Public Health, Anne Milton along with Professor Harminder Dua (President of the RCOphth), Anita Lightstone, Programme Director for the UK Vision Strategy, and Richard Carswell, Interim CEO of the AOP.
We have doggedly reminded them that vision is the sense that most people fear losing. That depression is associated with sight loss. That the risk of falls increases with sight loss. And that most importantly, half of all sight loss is preventable. All the things that we, as eye health professionals, are well aware of, but things that those outside of the sector may not know. It has been an impressive and well coordinated campaign from the sector that could act as a real turning point in the fight to improve the nation’s eye health.
I am proud to have personally been a part of this effort and proud of the work that the College has done. Working with Government is not always easy, but when it goes well it is incredibly satisfying!