Ophthalmic Conditions (Hansard, 24 February 2004)

§ 4. Angela Watkinson (Upminster) (Con)
What his Department's strategy is to improve access to treatment for ophthalmic conditions. [155721]

§ The Secretary of State for Health (Dr. John Reid)
Our strategy began with reintroducing free eye tests for the over-60s, which had been abolished under the previous Conservative Government. We are building on that by increasing capacity, for example through new treatment centres, and by developing more efficient ways of treating cataracts and chronic eye diseases, thus providing more local and convenient services for patients and delivering greater choice, shorter waits and more consistent quality.

§ Angela Watkinson
Does the Secretary of State agree that the role of optometrists in the NHS could be significantly expanded, in relation to the provision of clinical eye examinations, as opposed to general eye tests to determine whether people need glasses? In that regard, the early detection of ocular pathologies such as glaucoma is particularly important.

§ Dr. Reid
The hon. Lady makes a good point. To complement the investment in the NHS, we are trying to carry forward a series of reforms that will allow people a far greater degree of flexibility involving working in partnership, and which will break down previously defined artificial demarcations. I can assure the hon. Lady that we are considering how people can contribute in that way to the maximum extent of their abilities and skills, and one of the areas involved would be the one that she has mentioned.

§ Jonathan Shaw (Chatham and Aylesford) (Lab)
One of the great concerns in my constituency has been the waiting times for people in need of cataract operations. I thank my right hon. Friend for coming to Kent to open a new mobile treatment centre that will enable the number of such operations to rise from 8,000 to 13,000 a year by November. Due to the £4.4 million investment involved, no one will have to wait longer than three months for their cataract operation. Is not this the kind of thing that people want to see from their NHS?

§ Dr. Reid
Indeed, it was a great pleasure for me to visit the mobile unit in Maidstone on 9 February, where 300 of the extra procedures that my hon. Friend mentioned will take place. As a result of those procedures, the maximum waiting time for cataract operations in Kent will be reduced next month to six months, and to three months by December this year. I am glad to say that this is taking place four years ahead of schedule, due to the investment and reforms that have been put in place by the NHS staff themselves. At a time when every single thing that could go wrong in the NHS is being highlighted, we should mark our respect for the efforts of the NHS staff involved in a huge success such as this—which is resulting in so much pain being relieved—and for the alacrity with which treatment has been made available to so many people who previously had to wait up to two years.

§ Mr. John Baron (Billericay) (Con)
The Secretary of State will be aware that, last September, he extended the 128 normal three-month implementation period for National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance to nine months when photodynamic therapy to those suffering from wet age-related macular degeneration was involved. The Royal National Institute for the Blind estimates that, as a result, a further 2,800 people will go blind unnecessarily. Given that the institute also confirms that at least 50 centres across the country could provide extra photodynamic treatment from today, will the Secretary of State now scrap the July 2004 target for implementing this treatment and allow the NHS to deliver this important sight-saving service as a matter of urgency? If this is purely an issue of cost, I would remind him that the cost of blindness far exceeds the cost of treatment.

§ Dr. Reid
On the latter point, we are well aware of the costs of blindness, pain and death, which is why we are investing so much in the national health service and doing it over such a sustained period. With regard to the hon. Gentleman's specific points, the timelines and flexibility that we sought on implementing the NICE guidelines were in full accord with the recommendations and advice from NICE. On implementation, it is not cost that prevents it—more money than ever before is going into the treatment of a range of eye diseases—but lack of trained personnel. We have made huge advances in that area, but the truth is that we cannot just conjure up trained personnel without forward planning and investment for their provision—[Interruption.] The hon. Member interrupts me from a sedentary position, but no Government who bring in 80,000 additional cataract operations, as we are doing, can be accused of not taking eye conditions seriously. I assure him that we take this matter seriously, and that as soon as we can get the trained personnel, we will expand the provision. That is a continuing process and it will not be achieved overnight, but development and expansion of the NHS will continue in this area, as in every other area, over the next five years.