Report of Engagement with People with Vision Impairment

Main Findings

We heard:

• Diagnosis, Certification and Registration  – we heard of mixed experiences of receiving a diagnosis and prognosis of a vision impairment from ophthalmologists, and of the type of support people subsequently received.
• Eye Clinic Liaison Officer (ECLO) Role – the organisations that we spoke with identified a gap in the service provision in Worcestershire in that we are the only Integrated Care Board in the West Midlands that does not have an ECLO role in hospital settings. This has left some feeling unsupported at the potentially stressful time of diagnosis.
• Access to Health Services – barriers included waiting times for an  Ophthalmologist appointment, getting through to the right person, trouble booking appointments and cancellation of appointments at short notice
• Support to adapt to day to day life – we were told that there was variation in the support received to adapt to day to day life. This included access to mobility and orientation training, daily living skills and other learning opportunities
• Awareness about Vision Impairment amongst Health and Care Staff  – we heard some good practice, but also about some staff lacking awareness of how to interact with people with a vision impairment
• Information and Advice Required by Vision Impaired People – inaccessible information was a major problem for most people we spoke with. This is both in paper and electronic form. Not everyone can use websites (or wanted to) and if they did they were not always fully accessible
• Accessible Information Standard – there was a lack of awareness about the Standard, and people’s experience of how it worked in practice was very mixed

We have made 9 recommendations to the Integrated Care System (ICS) who are responsible for planning and paying for all NHS funded hospital and community health services for Worcestershire.  The ICS is a partnership of all NHS, Social Care and Voluntary Sector providers of publicly funded health and care services in our county.