News & Views

Senior Policy and Public Affairs Officer Greg Ellwood-Hughes analyses the implications for ophthalmology services.

A new report ‘Children and young people with vision impairment: The case for transforming support and services in England’ has been published by Guide Dogs’ Creating the Future Commission, 2021.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists is proud to be supporting World Sight Day 2021 with the theme #Loveyoureyes. World Sight Day is an opportunity for everyone to be aware of eye health and the impact of sight loss. Globally, at least 1 billion people have near or distance vision impairment that could be prevented or has yet to be addressed.

A joint parliamentary select committee report published yesterday has assessed some of the key decisions the UK has taken during the pandemic and lessons that needed to be learnt. While acknowledging there were some areas where the UK performed well, such as vaccine development and rollout, the report overall is very critical of the UK approach. These criticisms include ‘a degree of groupthink’ on the initial decisions taken on lockdowns and social distancing and stopping community testing early in the pandemic being a ‘serious mistake’. The report also importantly emphasised that a lack of NHS capacity was a significant problem.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) has today joined with other representatives of the Inequalities in Health Alliance (IHA) in a letter to the Prime Minister urging him to take bold action to ‘level up health’ in the next phase of pandemic recovery.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists is deeply concerned about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic ophthalmology, research and innovation in ophthalmology and vision sciences.