Submitted by administrator on
A concern has been raised following findings by Sight Loss Charity Thomas Pocklington Trust that residents of UK Care Homes are not receiving full access to eye tests and those that are offered are lacking in takers.
The review has also reported that after- care and what should be routine follow ups for patients are inadequate. The difficulty is that there is no current standard for care homes to make provision for their residents for eye health, despite almost half of all care home patients being estimated as suffering from sight loss.
Worryingly, dementia patients in particular were said to be at particular risk on losing out on eye care as the idea of sight testing someone with the condition may be considered less than necessary or worthwhile.
Whereas some residents just presume that sight loss is an inevitable part of age, or it is untreatable, the promotion of eye health is even more paramount, yet poor training for staff in identifying early signs of eye disease and overstretched carers generally mean that there is a high rate of treatable sight loss throughout the system. It needs to be pushed to the foreground of general health care as it is crucial for well being and of course independence.
By recognising this care homes will begin to provide reliable and better patient care.
It has been urged that care homes and the Care Quality Commission make general eye health an important part of the general criteria for performance.