Research and development into age-related macular degeneration, and other illnesses which cause long-term disability, is vital to ensuring cost-effective treatments can be created which either cure these diseases or allow people to live as independently as possible with their illness.
It was recently announced that a drug which could become the first treatment for dry age-related macular degeneration is being trialled in Scotland for the first time. This will be part of a study that is taking place across 24 different countries and we look forward to the outcome of this trial.
The Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, Shona Robison, announced a review of community eye-care services in Scotland on the 25th August 2016. It has been ten years since the introduction of free NHS eye examinations for all of Scotland’s residents in 2006. Since its introduction, there has been a 29% increase in the number of eye examinations carried out on an annual basis with over 2 million carried out in Scotland every year.
The SNP Government in Scotland remain committed to ensuring free eye examinations for all and the review will not change this. Instead it will focus on the developments of the skills and capabilities of eye-care practitioners over the past ten years and how these can now be used to offer an even higher quality of eye-care services for patients in their communities.
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