Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 July 2022
970. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health if additional funding will be provided to support eye care services in Cork, particularly to ensure that there is greater capacity for services in Cork to assist those with serious conditions such as glaucoma to have more regular care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37797/22]
View answerThe HSE Primary Care Eye Services Review Group (PCESRG) Report was launched in June 2017. The Report set out existing levels of service, models of service provision and the consultation process undertaken with patients, advocates, ophthalmic staff and representative bodies.
It also highlighted the limitations of the existing model of service delivery, including the impact on waiting lists, and sets out the way forward for a significant amount of eye services to be delivered in a primary care setting
The Report estimated that 60% of existing outpatient activity could be moved to primary care thus enabling hospital services to focus on patients who require more specialist diagnostics or treatments.
This Report remains current and the HSE has advised that in 2022 it will prioritise the advancing of the transfer of care for children aged 8+ years to local optometrists and supporting the Primary Care Eye Teams in CHOs 6, 7 and 9, with a view to then rolling out this team model to other CHOs.
With regard to Cork in particular, a new ophthalmology suite is being constructed at the Ballincollig Primary Care Centre. This new service will provide a designated specialised infrastructure where all community procedures related to Ophthalmology will be performed and incorporate Multidisciplinary Team Working between multiple grades of ophthalmology staff to deliver the best outcomes for both children and adults. The HSE advise that this Primary Care Centre is due to be operational in Q4 of 2022.
I am fully committed to the development of community services which can facilitate expanded and more integrated provision of eye care in local communities.
Any publicly funded service expansion should address unmet public healthcare needs, improve access to existing public health services or provide better value for money or patient outcomes.
However as this also relates to service provision I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
