Eye health checks lacking, causing ‘pain and expense’

Taupō's Ann Fogden says glaucoma is a bit like viewing life through a cardboard tube, and she is pictured here looking through a roll of paper towels. She is joining calls for better eye health screening in NZ. Photo / Dan Hutchinson

A Waikato woman says the implications of a serious eye disease have been “like cutting your life in half” and she is now on a mission to encourage people to get an eye check early.

Ann Fogden of Taupō was diagnosed with glaucoma about 20 years ago. She is now blind in one eye and has just 25 per cent vision in the other.

She describes it as “an inconvenience, not a disability” and describes her sight as like looking through a cardboard tube with Glad Wrap on one end.

“I am fiercely independent ... I can’t drive. It’s like cutting your life in half. As a fit, independent person, it is not fair. I want to get out and help other people.”

As a member of Blind Low Vision NZ and Eye Health Aotearoa, she was happy to speak publicly about her experience to make others aware that regular eye checks were the key to preventing many serious eye problems.

“There is an enormous number of people with glaucoma and 50 per cent of those don’t even know they have it. It steals up secretly, it’s the stealth.”

She was living in Queensland when she was first diagnosed. Up until then her eyes had been in perfect health, although she has been using reading glasses since she was in her 50s.

“I felt my right eye wasn’t right, it felt like a headache in it. I made an appointment for the next week, he had a look and then I went straight to a leading opthalmologist who was amazed that it hadn’t been picked up.”

She said children should all be checked because many of those with poor eyesight didn’t even know they were not seeing things properly.

“If a child doesn’t see properly, they don’t know they don’t see properly. It’s only once they have glasses that they realise what they couldn’t see.”

She said it was more important than ever given the amount of screen time young people were exposed to.

There had been a lot of advancements in general eye health over the years, Fogden said, and it was “quite astonishing” what could be done to prevent and fix problems but early identification was still the key.

“We want to get that message across to Government because at the end of the day that cost is going to be considerably less than would be at a later stage.

“And if children are assessed early then it picks up anything in your eyes and it will prevent a lot of pain and expense.”

Eye Health Aotearoa chairman John Mulka said they were asking the Government to fund preventative eye health examinations because 75-80 per cent of permanent visual impairment was preventable if it was picked up early.

He said almost all primary eye healthcare was provided by the private sector, and while the New Zealand Association of Optometrists recommended everybody had their eyes examined at least once every two years, this was not happening, especially for those who could not afford it.

“Access to timely eye healthcare is a fundamental human right – the right to sight.”

In New Zealand, about 180,000 Kiwis are blind or have low vision, and those numbers were expected to increase to 225,000 by 2028.

“We estimate that 75-80 per cent of blindness and low vision is avoidable, and New Zealanders should not be losing their sight as a result of preventable causes.”

Mulka said access to eye healthcare was also not equitable, with Māori and Pasifika people, ethnic minorities, regional New Zealand residents, those with lower incomes and other groups, having reduced access to eye healthcare.

“As a result, there is a higher rate of visual impairment and blindness in these groups – some of which is irreversible and would have been prevented with timely eye healthcare intervention. This does not sit well with the societal values we hold dear as a country.”

He said New Zealand’s eye health policy was about 30 years behind Australia and other comparable countries.

“This is hurting Kiwis and the economy.”

After experiencing vision loss a person was twice as likely to fall, and four times as likely to suffer hip fractures in a fall. The total cost of vision loss in New Zealand, including lost wellbeing, has increased to $3.74 billion annually. These costs will continue to rise as New Zealand’s population ages, says a report commissioned by Eye Health Aotearoa titled; Eye Care in Aotearoa New Zealand 2022: Eye Care Situation Analysis Tool (ECSAT).

Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall was asked for comment, but referred inquiries to the Ministry of Health.