Dr. Colm Henry:

That is a very important screening programme given its impact on the target population. As the Senator will be aware, the screening programmes were suspended during that lockdown when all non-essential services were paused. Since the recommencement of the diabetic retina screening programme 25,123 participants have had routine digital screening and 2,624 have had digital surveillance screening nationally. We expect 37,000 clients to be screened by the end of March 2021.

How all the screening programmes are impacted by Covid and infection prevention and control requirements that Covid demands of healthcare settings depends on the nature of the test and where it is carried out. Fortunately, that is one of the programmes we were able to re-establish fairly quickly on a good footing. Hopefully, we will maintain what is a really important screening service for a very important target population.