MP campaigns for better support for people losing their sight

MP campaigns for better support for people losing their sight

Tony Wright MP has joined up with the Royal National Institute for the Blind in launching their Lost and Found campaign. The campaign aims to ensure that everyone who loses their sight has the support they need, and that PCTs across the country treat sight loss as a high priority issue.

At a parliamentary reception hosted by RNIB, Tony learned about the patchy provision of support for people with sight loss and is taking action locally to ensure that quality support is in place in the eye clinic so everyone who is diagnosed as losing their sight gets the help they need.

23 per cent of people losing their sight leave the eye clinic without even being certain of the name of the condition that caused their sight loss. Thousands of people get no support when they lose their sight - most receive no counselling and are left to cope with their diagnosis alone.

However, a solution is at hand- the Eye Clinic Liaison Officer. This key professional, now in place in some eye hospitals around the UK, is there to give advice and support to people who are told they are losing their sight.

Tony said:

‘I am happy to support the RNIB’s Lost and Found campaign. In some areas of the UK we have, through the Eye Clinic Liaison Officer, excellent and professional services for people when they are diagnosed with sight loss in the eye hospital. However, more work needs to be done in our area to ensure the PCT gives this issue the priority it deserves and resources are put in place to deliver a service that meets local need.’

Fazilet Hadi , RNIB Group Director Inclusive Society, said:

‘When people lose their sight, they lose more than their ability to see, they lose their life as they once knew it. There is clearly a systemic failure in the UK to provide vital support for people when they lose their sight. It’s left to organisations like RNIB, or local societies of blind and partially sighted people, to plug this gap and at the moment we can only help one in three people facing this enormous life change.’

Visit www.rnib.org.uk/lost to find out more about RNIB’s Lost and Found campaign.