To ask the Minister of Health to detail (i) the financial and other support provided to optometrists to provide eyecare during the response related to COVID-19; (ii) how many patients have been able to access NI PEARS in the previous six months, broken down by Health and Social Care Trust area; and (iii) whether he has any plans to provide additional support for local enhanced services to address waiting lists.

In response to the reduction in the level of activity that Ophthalmic Practitioners were able to undertake due to Covid-19, a Financial Support Scheme (FSS) was established to reduce the risk to the ongoing viability of the service. The FSS provided an additional payment to eligible ophthalmic practices each month based on the average monthly payments received in 2019-20. Approximately £6.5 million in FSS payments have been made to Ophthalmic Contractors since April 2020.

While restrictions on routine eye care were eased on 29 June 2020, for the remainder of 2020-21 there remains considerable uncertainty in terms of the level of General Ophthalmic Services (GOS) activity that Ophthalmic Practitioners will be able to undertake. In response the Department has committed to further financial support each month with any significant budget underspend recycled back to Ophthalmic Contractors in the form of additional payments. This will ensure that the level of payments to Ophthalmic Practitioners during 2020-21 is in line with normal levels, even if activity is significantly reduced due to Covid-19.

In addition to the FSS, £367,000 of Level 1 & Level 2 PPE has been provided from central Health and Social Care stocks for Ophthalmic Practitioners since April 2020.

Table 1 shows the number of patients who accessed NI PEARS in each Health and Social Care Trust between February and July 2020.

Table 1

NI PEARS was suspended from April to June 2020, with Urgent Eyecare replacing it. This was to facilitate virtual (non-face-to-face) activity which was not an available option in the original NI PEARS Service Specification. 7,781 patients accessed Urgent Eyecare in this time with 50% being seen virtually. Table 2 shows the number who accessed NI PEARS and Urgent Eyecare each month between February and July 2020.

Table 2

Health and Social Care has now re-opened all existing enhanced service provision in the acute eye and glaucoma pathways. Additional enhanced services are planned for post-operative cataract reviews (in-year) and potential macular and neurology enhanced services (in development). All enhanced services are designed to free capacity in secondary care and address waiting lists.