Press Release issued: 8 July 2011.
Preventing avoidable sight loss will save Scotland millions in health and social welfare costs, claims a leading charity in the wake of the Christie Commission's landmark report on the future of public spending.
The Royal National Institute of Blind People Scotland says preserving free eye tests and highlighting the links between unhealthy lifestyles and vision are vital to contain what it has called a 'sight loss time-bomb'.
It is warning that sight loss could double to affect up to 400,000 Scots over the next two decades because of our ageing population and calamitous health record. Already up to one in six out-patient appointments at some Scottish hospitals are for eye-care.
The Christie Commission estimated a staggering 40 per cent of all public service spending 'could have been avoided by prioritising a preventative approach'. Its report has laid heavy emphasis on restructuring public spending around strategies to minimise the costs of future health and social problems.
James Adams, campaigns manager for RNIB Scotland, said: "The current annual cost of sight problems to the public sector is around £17,600 per person - roughly equivalent to ten hospital admissions.
"The financial cost - never mind the huge personal cost - of caring for twice as many people with sight loss would place an enormous strain on our health and social care budgets. So we need to do everything we can now to contain this rise, by treating sight loss conditions as early as possible when they can be arrested or even reversed."
RNIB Scotland is urging that free eye-examinations - introduced in 2006 as a UK first - are preserved as a vital step in diagnosing preventable sight loss. They can also detect general health conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure which can also lead to sight problems later on. Last year, 1.78 million people had free eye examinations, and 80,000 were referred on for further potentially sight-saving treatment.
Increasing public awareness of the long-term side effects of conditions such as diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness among working-age adults, is also vital, says the charity. Rates of diabetes in Scotland have rocketed.
Likewise, ensuring that people with learning disabilities receive regular eye-examinations could also save thousands of pounds in life-long support costs. This group is ten times more likely to have sight problems than the general population but often this goes undetected because the person cannot communicate they are having problems seeing.
"The Christie Commission has nailed a crucial truth - it says 'focusing on consequences rather than causes has a high cost for society and a high cost for public services', and that's absolutely right," said Adams.
"As a society, we are going to find that sight loss, and all the attendant problems this brings, will be much more common place. Turning our current approach on its head - spending now to prevent spending much more later on - must make sense."