Calls for next govt to develop national eye health plan

Vision Ireland has said that there is a critical need for a national eye health strategy over the lifetime of the next Government.

Chris White, group CEO, told the Health Committee that blindness and vision impairment impacts over 296,000 people.

Vision Ireland is the new name for the National Council for the Blind of Ireland.

Mr White said waiting lists for eye care remain among the longest in the health system.

Aaron Mullaniff, Vision Ireland chief services officer, said 18 people begin to lose their sight in Ireland each day and that 70% of blindness is largely preventable through early detection and treatment.

He also told the Health Committee that Ireland has one of the lowest numbers of eye doctors in Europe and that 37,880 people are waiting for their first outpatient appointment.

Mr White said that Vision Ireland spends €11m a year and receives just €3m in State funding and this is not sustainable.

The organisation told the Committee that it receives around €23 per person in core grant funding from the HSE to support those living with visual impairment or blindness here.

Separately, the Irish Lung Fibrosis Association (ILFA) told the committee that it wants to see a clinical care programme established, to ensure equity as the current care system is a postcode lottery.

Its chief executive Maureen O’Donnell said it wants patients to have access to pulmonary rehabilitation, plus State funding for the ILFA and for patients.

It said the cost of running oxygen equipment at home is a struggle for patients, given rising energy costs.

Lung fibrosis is a progressive, debilitating, terminal illness. It begins with a dry cough, shortness of breath and increasing fatigue.

The association said there is no cure, and the only hope is a lung transplant.

The average life expectancy is three years.

A man with lung fibrosis has spoken of how he feels “let down by the system”, having to “paddle [his] own canoe”.

In October 2021, Robert Hurley was diagnosed with the lung disease.

He started receiving treatment and stopped working in order to qualify for a lung transplant.

He told the committee that his attendance today nearly did not happen, as the oxygen he relies upon did not arrive until Monday.

He was “left in limbo” while the delivery was delayed.

Having been refused a medical card, Mr Hurley said: “After 30 years of working I feel let down by the system” having “to paddle my own canoe”.

Without the support given by the ILFA he “wouldn’t be here today” as theirs are the only facilities he has access to.

Ms O’ Donnell said that during the Covid-19 pandemic, half of those patients with lung fibrosis who were admitted to hospital died.

This compares to 20% of the general population who were admitted to hospital dying.

Mr Hurley ran marathons and triathlons well into his 40s before he developed the disease.

Medics repeatedly told him that there was nothing wrong, but he persisted, and thanks to his underlying health, and eventual diagnosis, he is alive today.

He told the committee that there is no history of lung disease in his family and he never smoked.

Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson David Cullinane said that he is “amazed” that the ILFA does not receive any public funding.

Physiotherapist Olive McCafferty noted that sufferers of lung fibrosis cannot avail of the pulmonary rehab programme – and emphasised that such access is of “paramount” importance and “the least that should be done”.

Respiratory consultant Killian Hurley said that patients being referred for a lung transplant were in such bad condition – because they had been denied pulmonary rehab – that they could not undergo a full assessment of whether they were suitable for a transplant.

Independent senator Frances Black said she shared the shock which other committee members had spoken of at the lack of support for people with lung fibrosis.