Indigenous ophthalmic equipment survey begins

The Fred Hollows Foundation is being funded by the Federal Government to prepare the National Eye Care Equipment Inventory, which will capture information about the accessibility and availability of eye-care equipment in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sector across Australia.The inventory will also identify and prioritise eye-care equipment needs in regions that are undertaking activities to implent The Roadmap to Close the Gap for Vision. The Roadmap, which was produced in 2012 by the University of Melbourne’s Indigenous Eye Health Unit, includes 42 policy recommendations to improve indigenous eye health.Optometrist Ms Lisa Penrose will be coordinating the inventory project, assisting primary healthcare services in communities around Australia to conduct the survey and helping th identify equipment that may not be fully utilised because of the need for training or for repairs. It’s important to include that equipment, whether or not it is working, Ms Penrose stated. We also need to know what equipment is used by visiting providers – everything has to be counted, including portable equipment. On 1 Novber 2016, the new Medicare it for diabetic retinopathy screening comes into effect, and it was said that with gaps in equipment identified, the Federal Government’s rollout of retinal cameras and slit lamps to targeted communities would be able to begin. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities will have improved access to retinal cameras and staff will be trained and ready to help close the gap for vision, Ms Penrose said.The Fred Hollows Foundation indicated that over the next year, the project team planned to develop a ‘sector endorsed’ eye-care equipment needs prioritisation criteria for use by both government and the broader eye-care sector. The criteria is expected to guide the future allocation of funds for identified equipment needs and ensure more effective use of resources to ‘close the gap’ for vision.According to the Foundation, approximately 37 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults have diabetes and 13 per cent have already lost vision through diabetic retinopathy, with only one in five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with diabetes having undergone an eye test in the last year.