§ Dr. BrandTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the number of pensioners who(a) will be eligible to and (b) will actually take up the Government's extension of free eye tests; what are the estimated costs of this scheme; and what assessment he has made of the potential savings arising from the early diagnosis of eye conditions. [53751]
§ Mr. MilburnWe estimate that between 6 million and 7 million additional people aged 60 or over will become eligible for free National Health Service sight tests from 1 April 1999. Assuming this results in about 2 million more sight tests per annum, additional costs of some £30 million will be incurred over current annual expenditure on sight tests of £110 million. Optometrists regularly identify signs of eye diseases such as glaucoma during sight tests but we cannot yet assess the health gains which result.
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