Camden New Journal - Health102507

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Camden New Journal - HEALTH by JAMIE WELHAM
Published: 25 October 2007

Phillip Watson

‘Scandal’ of diabetes patients who are put at risk of blindness

Just 58 per cent screened through NHS scheme

DIABETES patients in the borough are being put at risk of blindness because they are not being offered a vital screening service, a health chief has warned.
Camden Primary Care Trust offers retinal screening to 58 per cent of diabetes patients – falling woefully short of government targets to offer the service to every patient with the condition by December 2007.
Phillip Watson, regional manager of the charity Diabetes UK, called the findings “a scandal”.
Commenting on the Department of Health quarterly figures, he said: “The provision of services across the region is patchy and it is a scandal that people with diabetes are needlessly being put at risk of losing their sight.
“We have to make sure that all people with diabetes have appropriate access to retinal screening as a matter of urgency and encourage the PCT to put in place the appropriate facilities and allocate the necessary budget to their screening programme.”
Retinal screening is used to spot signs of retinopathy, a complication of diabetes in which the blood supply to the eyes is cut, which can lead to blindness.
Mohamed Abdi, from Kentish Town, was diagnosed with diabetes in 2001 and says the screening service is a potential lifeline.
He said: “I have used the service twice already and it’s great.
“It is so quick and easy and provides so much reassurance that it is a shame so many people don’t know about it.”
He added: “I am an interpreter for the NHS and am pretty certain that the language barrier prevents many people hearing about the service.”
More than 6,000 people in the borough have diabetes, which is the biggest cause of blindness among working-age people in the UK.
A Camden PCT spokesman said: “Camden PCT are in the process of developing a new integrated screening programme, which will ensure all patients are offered the choice of providers and receive screening once a year.
“The model is very complex and technical to set up and install and therefore has taken some time to establish.
“Once the service is in place it will offer a clinically excellent service to patients.”
The new screening service will be available at University College Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital and the Whittington Hospital as well as with six optometrists across Camden and Islington

Health boss’s birthday screening

MOST people celebrate reaching 50 with a meal and a bottle of bubbly. But not Islington’s top health boss, who marked the half-century milestone by having her first breast screening appointment.
Islington Primary Care Trust chief executive Rachel Tyndall went to a mobile screening van at St Pancras Hospital for the procedure in order to promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
She said: “A friend of mine told me it made her feel old when she received her screening invitation shortly after her 50th birthday, but I welcomed the opportunity of a free check-up. My screening appointment took about half an hour and was calm and dignified.”
One in nine women develops breast cancer at some point in their lifetime, but in Islington only slightly more than 50 per cent of women invited to an appointment attend.
The NHS breast-screening programme provides free screening every three years for all women in the UK aged 50 or over. Women registered with a GP aged between 50 and 70 are routinely invited for breast screening.

For more information on the screening service, women should contact their GP or the breast-screening service on 020 7601 8305.

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