Eye patients forced to go private or go blind due to soaring NHS waiting lists

Patients are being forced to pay for private eye care or risk going blind as the backlog for NHS treatment soars.

Waiting times for NHS ophthalmology services, which accounts for almost 10 per cent of the 7.8 million national backlog, have forced 81 per cent of patients to pay for private healthcare, according to a survey by the Association of Optometrists (AOP).

The increasing waiting times come as reveals the story of a woman who was forced to pay £3,000 for private care after she faced a three-week wait for emergency sight-saving treatment on the NHS. If she had waited just one more week there was a 30 per cent chance she would’ve gone blind.