28 September 2022

Ireland budget 2023 – a missed opportunity for eye care

The Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform set out the 2023 budget on 27 September. With planned government spending much higher than in previous years, FODO Ireland is disappointed that eye care was not included.

The omission seems at odds with Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly's commitments earlier this year to contract more services from acute settings to community optical practices and transfer care for children over eight years to local optometrists.

FODO Ireland supports the Minister's views that "embedded in communities, local practices ensure access to care near people's homes". We also agree with the Minister's comment that "the vision for a universal health service means that it's affordable, that it's accessible when you need it, and that you have a good outcome".

However, Daniel Hodgson, Head of Policy and Public Affairs for FODO Ireland, said: "While we welcome the increased funding for healthcare services more generally and the expansion of state-funded general medical practice and other services to more patients, this is a missed opportunity for eye care patients."

The Minister's commitments to eye care earlier this year reinforced the HSE's report from 2017. The report recommended more services delivered in primary care by local optometrists - providing improved patient outcomes and reducing pressure on hospital services.

Daniel added: "FODO Ireland, and patients, have been waiting over five years to see this implemented, and the higher 2023 budget would have been the perfect opportunity to fund that transition to more accessible eye care for all, through greater use of community optical practices.

"We will never see the positive patient outcomes the HSE hopes for if the government is unwilling to invest in primary eye care as an equal; a key part of the eye care pathway."

FODO Ireland had submitted a pre-Budget request on spending, calling for more investment in primary eye care, including increased funding to:

• Help under-16s have their sight test in primary eye care practices based on clinical need, not ability to pay
• Adequately fund eye care services under the Medical Card
• Invest in providing more care in primary eye care settings to reduce pressure on hospital eye departments and prevent avoidable sight loss
• Fund an electronic referral system so that eye care professionals in primary and secondary care can work together to meet growing eye health needs
• Provide immediate approval online for medical card patients so they don't have to wait months for manual systems to grind slowly and suffer risks associated with uncorrected vision and the risk of losing sight, which could have been saved.

Read the budget announcement in detail.