Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to address (a) demand for eye clinic appointments and the (b) hospital eye services.

Alistair Burt

Clinical commissioning groups are able to commission eye care services over and above the sight test where they judge them to be needed in their areas.

This could include post cataract surgery reviews, glaucoma monitoring and low vision services which may reduce pressure on hospital eye departments, reduce waiting times and make patient care pathways more accessible in the community.

There is scope for further work to be done by community optometrists and the Clinical Council for eye health commissioning is working with commissioners to develop commissioning guidelines in this area.