Press Release issued: 13 August 2010.
Dunfermline East MSP Helen Eadie has added her voice to calls for a high-tech eye-care initiative - currently being piloted in Fife - to be made available across Scotland.
Ms Eadie, who sits on the Scottish Parliament's backbench health committee, will visit Queen Margaret's Hospital in Dunfermline today to see the new Electronic Referral with Digital Images System.
The system has drastically reduced referral times by taking an electronic photograph of people's eyes at high street opticians then instantly e.mailing these to the ophthalmology department at Queen Margaret's Hospital in Dunfermline.
The only system of its kind operating in the UK, eye specialists say it has revolutionised the way people are referred on to eye clinics and has already saved the sight of patients who require immediate treatment.
But calls to extend the technology to other Scottish health boards have highlighted a major dilemma in the current economic crisis - whether to freeze spending now, or invest to save money later?
Ms Eadie said: "NHS Fife has played a pioneering role in tackling preventable sight loss by drastically reducing the time between initial examinations and specialist follow-up. Already we have had urgent cases where the need for immediate treatment was identified.
"I will be pressing for the system to be introduced in other health board areas. We are on the verge of having a truly world-class eye-care system in Scotland. We mustn't step back from this now. Making this investment now will pay dividends later - and potentially save the sight of many people."
Dr Roshni Sanders, consultant ophthalmologist, said: "The Electronic Referral System allows us to speedily identify patients that require sight-saving treatment, whilst also recognising longstanding pathology that does require hospital attendance. It also ensures that patients are sent to the most appropriate specialist clinic at first visit, thus giving a one-stop service at hospital. Overall this re-design of electronic communication makes excellent use of hospital resource for patients, ophthalmologists and optometrists."
Lochgelly man James Taylor (74) was seen in hospital just 24 hours after referral by his optometrist. His digital images clearly showed treatable wet macular degeneration. He had intra-vitreal treatment and recovered his vision. "If he had not got treatment in time he would have gone from being able to drive to being functionally blind," said Dr Sanders.
The country's leading sight loss charity RNIB Scotland has backed Ms Eadie's call.
Director John Legg said: "The Fife system has significantly improved eye-care services through reduced paperwork, correct appointment allocations, and by allowing for e-diagnosis. A highly significant outcome has been the high proportion of patients identified as not needing a hospital appointment, saving both time and money."
In June, the charity published a report that warned that the number of Scots with sight loss could double to almost 400,000 between now and 2030. It estimates the total cost to the public sector to already be £194m a year. But this will increase significantly because the elderly population is set to rise by 62 per cent over the next two decades. Already up to one in six out-patient appointments at some Scottish hospitals are for eye-care.
"The annual cost of sight loss per person is around £17,600 - roughly equivalent to ten hospital admissions," said Legg. "Apart from the tragic personal price to be paid, at a time when our public finances are being squeezed massively we need to do everything we possibly can to reduce the number who will need treatment."
At present, around 37,000 people are formally registered as blind or partially sighted in Scotland, but the true total is reckoned to be around 180,000.