4. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Future approach to optometry services

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:54 pm on 21 September 2021.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 3:54, 21 September 2021

Thank you for your statement. This is prudent healthcare in action. Well done. You know, given all the problems we face in the health service, it's really important that we are moving services to primary care, where it's safe to do so. And I'm sure this is going to be very much welcomed by people who can now get an excellent service in their local communities.

I visited a really excellent optometry service in Pentwyn with your predecessor, Vaughan Gething, who piloted the electronic referral system and the digital imaging that enabled them to share these images of the eye with the ophthalmologist, where there was an urgency to get a specialist opinion. And I wondered if you could tell me—there was £4.8 million to develop the electronic patient record and £3.5 million to replace equipment—does that mean that all optometrists with higher qualifications can be certain of having that level of equipment, to enable them to quickly push through any serious concerns they detect in their examinations? Because that seems to me really important in relation to your answer to Russell George around ensuring that people don't lose their sight because we're hanging around.

And, secondly, I wondered if I could ask you about how we're dealing with cataracts, because a friend of mine runs a very successful charity called Second Sight that deals with thousands of cataract operations in Bihar, which is the poorest part of India, using ophthalmologists from across the world. In Bihar, they can do 1,000 cataracts a day, which is obviously transformative. Do we have the same ambition in Wales to have these sort of production lines of cataracts? Because, yes, there are lots of them, but it's a pretty straightforward operation to do, and, therefore, we just need to get shot of the problem, and I'm sure people will be prepared to travel.