Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for the opportunity, on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, to address the issue of appointing eye care liaison officers, ECLOs. The ECLO service provides practical and emotional support to patients and their families to meet their needs when a diagnosis of sight loss is made. The officer works closely with clinical teams and provides a link between acute and community-based services. The service helps to ensure that patients and families are well informed and understand the condition and the supports available to them. This service is currently available in the Mater University Hospital, the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Temple Street Children's Hospital and Crumlin children's hospital.

I understand that the HSE met with the NCBI in December 2020 to discuss the issue of expanding the service. The NCBI identified the potential benefits associated with the introduction of ECLO posts and experience from the introduction of such posts in hospitals. I regret that the HSE was not in a position to allocate specific resources to support this development in 2021.However, the HSE is examining the potential to support NCBI in 2021 with the current resources. The HSE will engage directly with NCBI in this regard. The HSE primary care eye services review group report, published in June 2017, sets out the way forward for a significant amount of eye services to be delivered in a primary care setting. Supported by the clinical programme in ophthalmology and its model of care, the report recommends integrated care provision with hospital ophthalmic services. This will ensure that hospital ophthalmic departments are focused on patients who require more specialised diagnostics or treatments. The recommendations of the report are being implemented on a phased basis as resources allow. This includes primary care revenue funding and the Sláintecare integration funding for 2019.

Implementation to date has focused on establishing and expanding primary care eye teams in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow. The initial priority is to address backlogs in waiting lists for paediatric eye care services. Waiting list numbers show significant progress has been made in this regard by the primary care eye teams in these areas. The HSE plans to redirect some adult outpatient care from acute services to these teams too. When this is rolled out, the teams will focus on pre- and post-operative cataract care and the management of stable glaucoma patients. I expect that the roll out of integrated eye care teams will make a significant contribution to reducing waiting lists and ensuring that hospital ophthalmic departments can focus on surgical activities and more complex referrals.