MP Supports RNIB Campaign

25th January 2006

On Tuesday 24th January 2006, David Amess MP attended the launch of the Royal National Institute for the Blind’s ‘Open Your Eyes Campaign’, hosted by Mr Kevin Baron MP, Chair of the Health select Committee of which David is a member.

This campaign will operate over the next three years to highlight the need for a reduction in preventable sight loss, an increase in awareness of eye health issues and prioritisation of visual impairment within policy and service provision by both national and local government.

The ‘Open your Eyes’ action plan will aim specifically to address the UK’s impending eye health crisis looking at the current care provided for the visually impaired and identifying the shortfalls that will hinder the services for the blind if the number of people in the UK with sight loss doubles by 2030 to 4 million as the RNIB predicts.

On attending the event David said,

‘I support RNIB’s call on government to raise awareness of the need for a regular eye test and will be working at local and national level to help them with the campaign. Many people believe that an eye test is just to see whether you need glasses, but it is more than this - it is an eye health check. Only two-thirds of the adult population have had an eye test within the past two years, the most common reason for not having a test being that people think they don’t have a problem with their eyes. But an eye test can identify eye disease well before we notice any change in our vision. By the time there are symptoms a great deal of useful vision will have been lost and may never be recovered. I would urge everyone in our area to get their eyes tested regularly.’