Thousands of blind people are missing out on NHS services essential to help them with everyday tasks such as cooking and reading, campaigners warn.
Many patients have told The Mail on Sunday that this leaves them homebound and dependent on the help of family and friends.
To access vital help — such as cane training, home modifications, and machines to aid in reading — patients must be officially declared blind. Typically, patients are considered blind if they have difficulty reading the top row of an optician’s postcard. They are then added to an official government register of visually impaired people.
The process, known as a low vision certification — or a CVI — also entitles them to disability parking and employment protections under the Equality Act.
But according to research from the MoS, half of eligible people are not certified. “Unfortunately, many people who are blind and partially sighted are not told they are eligible for a CVI,” says Cathie Burke of the Royal National Institute of Blind People.
To access vital help — such as white cane training, home modifications, and machines to assist with reading — patients must be officially certified as blind
Typically, patients are considered blind if they have difficulty reading the top row of an optician’s postcard
“It’s very important that people are registered as blind when they qualify and we want clinicians to be more active in helping patients get certified.”
More than two million people in the UK live with vision loss, of whom around 340,000 are registered as blind. About half of all cases of severe vision loss are caused by age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The condition affects the middle part of the eye, called the macula, and while it doesn’t cause total blindness, it can make everyday activities nearly impossible.
More than 500,000 people in the UK suffer from glaucoma, which damages the nerve that connects the eye to the brain, often becoming visually impaired in old age.
Other causes of vision loss include cataracts — where the lens in the eye becomes cloudy — and diabetes-related vision loss.
If a patient’s vision has deteriorated to the point that doctors believe it can’t be improved, he is a candidate for a CVI. Whether their vision has reached this point should be assessed by an eye specialist who measures their ability to see detail at a distance and their vision from the side of their eye.
The certificate allows blind people to register with their local social services and request assistance, such as modifications to their home, for example rails in their bathroom to guide them and prevent them from falling.
The certificates also protect blind people under the Equality Act, meaning employers cannot fire them because of their disability and must make adjustments to ensure they can continue working.
However, a British study published in the medical journal Nature in 2020 found that only 49 percent of those eligible for a CVI had one.
‘Sometimes new NHS doctors, or those coming from abroad, are less aware of or have less confidence in certification,’ says Ms Burke. “Patients often don’t know they are eligible, so don’t force them to get the certificate.”
Record-long NHS waiting lists mean there’s little time to complete certification, doctors say.
‘These certificates are very useful, but they have to be completed by consultants and we have less time than ever before,’ says Dr Christiana Dinah, the ophthalmic research lead at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust.
“With our current workload, it’s easy to see why there are delays in registering patients.”
Dr. Dinah points out that some hospitals employ staff, known as eye clinic liaison officers, who help get people registered. “They’ve made a huge difference and more should be hired in the UK.”
One patient who understands the importance of a CVI is 76-year-old Simon Mahoney from Derbyshire, who is blind from glaucoma.
The former social worker’s condition deteriorated to the point where he went blind in 2012, but it took him two years to develop a CVI.
He says, “Nobody ever said I needed one. When I finally found out what a CVI was, I went to my consultant and asked for one. He asked me, “Why would you need one like that?” He clearly didn’t understand its importance to someone like me.’
Mr Mahoney says he is far from alone, adding: ‘A friend was told it would take six months to get one, despite the fact that her eyesight was completely gone.
“I have friends who get their blindness advice from the social media app TikTok, rather than going to clinics where they think they won’t get help.
‘The NHS needs to get better at registering the blind.’