Question reference: S5W-36070
- Asked by: Lewis Macdonald, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 11 March 2021
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Current status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 29 April 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to utilise additional services to deal with any backlog of patients awaiting cataract surgery.
Answer
The Scottish Government is working collaboratively with NHS Scotland to identify all available additional capacity to support higher volume cataract surgery.
As part of the process of remobilising NHS services, discussions are ongoing with the NHS Golden Jubilee to utilise all their theatre capacity with the appropriate physical distancing and infection control measures in place. To support this the NHS Golden Jubilee is planning to undertake around 12,000 cataracts operations during the next financial year.
To support cataract activity an additional £3 million was made available during 2020-21 to support out-patient reviews of hospital eye services’ patients. This enabled some community optometrists, who are skilled and appropriately equipped, to share the care of lower risk patients who would not otherwise be reviewed.