Health NZ said it was working to improve access and cut waiting times, including by recruiting for vacancies and using community-based models of care.<\/p>\n
It acknowledged demand for eye health services continued to grow as the population aged and more people needed treatment and monitoring for conditions.<\/p>\n
Director national clinical networks Mary Cleary-Lyons said it did not keep figures on the number of people with deteriorating or lost vision as a result of long wait times.<\/p>\n
\u201cClinical services routinely assess and prioritise patients based on urgency and risk, and patients whose condition changes are encouraged to contact their healthcare provider so that their clinical priority can be reviewed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett said these were often patients who had chronic diseases.<\/p>\n
An ageing population meant there were many with age-related issues such as cataracts, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo especially important for patients with glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration… these patients have recommended time frames to make it a safe estimate between when they\u2019re seeing the specialist.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if they\u2019re not being seen within that time frame, the risk of them having disease progression that goes on to lose vision that we can\u2019t bring back is very real.\u201d<\/p>\n
Auckland and the Northern region had some of the worst wait times with an increase of 4% in the past couple of years, while most other parts increased by 2%, Bennett said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just having a chat with a colleague in Waikato, and he was saying that they have 3000 overdue follow-ups, that are over the 50% threshold.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it really is an indication of a system failure, which is multifactorial.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said doctors were trying to use any resources they have to reduce the wait times, including utilising allied health professionals.<\/p>\n
This meant getting patients seen by optometrists, ophthalmic technicians or nurses, often in clinics called \u201cimaging clinics\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have senior nurses who run age-related macular degeneration review clinics… However, we just don\u2019t have enough people that we\u2019re allowed to hire to get through the work.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said besides the ageing population there was a lack of investment in both person power and specialists.<\/p>\n
Bennett said only 80% of specialist positions were filled in the country, with a lack of sufficient optometrists, nurses, technicians and admin support staff within the departments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a tsunami. With a tsunami, you get ongoing, relentless increase in numbers, and you can\u2019t escape it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently, the Government says that we don\u2019t have a hiring freeze. However, the reality is that it\u2019s nigh impossible to employ new people. There\u2019s a lack of investment in the physical structures… We also have a lack of investment in our IT infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said patients who suffered the consequences of long wait times, such as vision loss, needed support systems that could come at a high economic cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of the economic cost, it\u2019s much cheaper to actually put adequate funding into a public health system than have people end up with poor vision and try to look after them at the other end.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe actually need cross-party support for a significant and sustained increase in funding for eye health care in the public sector.\u201d<\/p>\n
Health NZ\u2019s Mary Cleary-Lyons said work was being done with the Eye Health National Clinical Network and local services in an attempt to improve access to care and reduce waiting times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWork is underway to reduce variation in access across the country, strengthen clinical pathways, support greater integration between hospital and community-based services, and improve digital infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis includes expanding opportunities for shared care with community optometrists where clinically appropriate, reviewing follow-up pathways for lower-risk patients, and supporting nationally consistent approaches to triage and prioritisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cleary-Lyons said Health NZ continued to recruit for approved vacancies and was trying to strengthen capacity through initiatives such as \u201cspecialist training pathways, international recruitment, retention initiatives, and greater use of multidisciplinary teams\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health NZ said it was working to improve access and cut waiting times, including by recruiting for vacancies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[288271,534,23541,4190,2082,22220,134,527,2959,111,139,37968,75704,69,3532,59265,6293,764],"class_list":["post-585676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-288271","tag-amid","tag-blind","tag-demand","tag-for","tag-going","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-high","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nine","tag-noon","tag-nz","tag-ophthalmology","tag-overdue","tag-patients","tag-tests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}