to save sight you need timely diagnosis and treatment accessible to all – breaking latest news

Almost one in five Italians suffers from vision limitations
serious (about 2% of the population aged 15 and over) o moderate (16.7% of the population). Much higher percentages are recorded among those older in age: those who have serious or moderate eye problems 33.8% of over-65s and well the 41.9% of over seventy-five year olds, as confirmed by the data (2019) of the Report on the state of implementation of policies on the prevention of blindness, education and vision rehabilitation recently sent by the Ministry of Health to Parliament. The number of people affected by low vision increasing also because the progressive increase in life expectancy has led to a greater diffusion of eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataract, retinal vascular pathologies. The risk That by 2030 blind people will double
if action is not taken immediatelywarns the Italian Society of Ophthalmology (Soi) which, on the occasion of the twentieth International Congress scheduled for 25 to 27 May in Rome, draws attention to the need for a change of direction on the front of prevention and ophthalmological assistance in the within the National Health Service (NHS).

Long waits and fragmented visits

Today, cataract surgery in a NHS facility can take two to three years. Just as there are long waits in the public for visits and diagnostic tests. Those who can afford it turn to the private sector, those who cannot wait or give up treatment. The visitthen, they are fragmented, as Matteo Piovella, president of Soi explains: If a citizen does not see well he cannot carry out a complete eye examination in the public in a single access. Each exam is governed by different timings and tickets to be paid. At least 3-6 months pass before a diagnosis is made, entering and leaving hospital clinics or wards; meanwhile, without proper treatment, the disease and vision worsen.

Innovative technologies but scarce in the public

There have been tremendous advances in ophthalmology over the past twenty years, from the development of innovative technologies that allow increasingly precise diagnoses in real time, at new surgical techniques and pharmacological therapies. Unfortunately, however – underlines Piovella – the organizational and economic difficulties have penalized our Health Service for which the adoption of these new technologies within public structures reaches just 4%. And it is the patients who pay the consequences. For example, – continues President Soi – out of about 650,000 cataract operations carried out every year in Italy, only 0.6 percent of patients have used an artificial lens capable of eliminating all vision defects and presbyopia. As well as the patients who suffer from are penalized maculopathy. In Italy – says Piovella – it has only 30% of those in need have access to adequate care: in fact, around 300,000 intra-vitreal injections are performed each year compared to the million or more that are performed in England, France and Germany.

Few ophthalmologists in the Health Service

Then there is the problem of shortage of ophthalmologists in public health. According to calculations by Soi, of the seven thousand ophthalmologists working in Italy less than 3 thousand they do it in the structures of the National Health Service and, within a few years, one of three (about a thousand) will reach the age of pension. This in the face of a request for eye care that has grown twenty-fold since the 1980s (when law n. 833/78 establishing the National Health Service came into force, ndr) to date, according to Soi’s estimates; with consequences also on long waits in the public. A problem that affects almost all branches of medicine but for some, such as ophthalmology, particularly evident due to thehuge demand for treatment in the face of a small number of ophthalmologists who work in the National Health Service underlines Nino Cartabellotta, president of the Gimbe Foundation, who adds: The objective of public health must always be to make innovative technologies available to all patientsin ophthalmology can mean prevent blindness.

Appeal to institutions

The Manifesto Access to sustainable eye care in Italy developed by the Italian Society of Ophthalmology contains some proposals for provide timely and high-quality eye services, both diagnostic and surgical, in the context of the National Health Service, to prevent the loss of sight of thousands of compatriots. According to ophthalmologists, it is necessary, among other things, to reduce waiting times for visits, examinations and surgical interventions; ensure access to less fragmented visits by making available to the public both innovative technological tools that today allow precision diagnosis in real time, and cutting-edge therapies and interventions; increase the number of ophthalmologists working in public health. Hence the appeal to the institutions to commit themselves with investments and an innovative approach a strengthen public ophthalmology.