The long-awaited national diabetic retinopathy screening programme will not be fully rolled out until 2015, it has now emerged.
Diabetic Retina Screen aims to offer free, regular diabetic retinopathy screening to all people with diabetes aged 12 years and older, and finally began its phased rollout earlier this year.
All people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes are at risk of developing diabetic retinopathy, a common complication of diabetes that can lead to deterioration in vision. The programme uses specialised digital photography to detect problems at an early stage to reduce or prevent damage to sight.
Dr Diarmuid Smith, HSE national clinical lead for diabetes, said he hoped 30 per cent of eligible Irish diabetic patients would be screened in 2013, with the remaining 70 per cent in 2014, and that 100 per cent coverage could be achieved in 2015.
He said about 250 patients had been screened already in 2013 in the Leinster region with the programme due to “ramp up screening numbers to 500-1,000 patients a week” in the coming weeks if all goes to plan, he confirmed during his presentation at the Irish College of Ophthalmologists annual meeting in Killarney recently.
Dr Smith said a number of “challenges” needed to be overcome to get the programme fully up and running, including accurate costings and ensuring those who are screened have immediate access to necessary treatment.
The programme calculates that about 18 per cent of screened patients will have a diabetes-related eye issue; an estimated 5 per cent will have sight-threatening retinopathy; while a further 7 per cent will have a non-diabetes eye problem.
Dr Smith said the programme should cost about €14 million a year (screening and treatment). The delays in rolling it out were largely due to issues caused by the HSE’s recruitment embargo, he added.