In the uk, about 500,000 people are legally registered as blind or partially sighted but the true number, if it could be discovered, is probably much higher - perhaps even over a million. In my local authority, the London Borough of Sutton, slightly fewer than 1,000 people are on the register, and about 100 are added each year, but as long ago as 1997, the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) estimated that the real figure was probably about 3,170. According to the RNIB this is because around two thirds of visually impaired people do not register their condition with social services and are not formally logged in the system. We therefore do not have information about the real scale of the problems of sight loss and low vision in this country.

What we do know is that visual impairment and blindness are among the most debilitating effects of disease. Nine out of 10 blind or partially sighted people are aged over 65 and many, faced with serious visual impairment, will be less adept at learning the new skills needed to maintain their independence. Visual acuity is vital in the prevention of falls and accidents - in fact the National Service Framework for Older People cites visual impairment as one of the five intrinsic risk factors leading to injury as a result of a fall.

Given the numbers quoted above and the devastating impact that blindness and visual impairment can have on a person's independence and experience of day-to-day living, one would imagine that this was a priority in terms of healthcare. Certainly there are high-profile areas of ophthalmic disease that have seen a genuine improvement in the provision of treatments and services, such as cataracts and diabetes-related eyesight problems, but there is cause for concern that the UK has a poor record compared to other European countries in other areas of treatment and services for sight-related problems.

I recently had the opportunity to lend my support to two initiatives that are seeking to redress the balance, one by the Patients Association (PA) and the other by the AMD Alliance.

At the end of February, the PA began its campaign with the launch in the House of Commons of the findings of a survey it conducted at the end of last year among health authorities and boards across the UK. The survey showed that only half of all health authorities / boards believe their current provision of ophthalmology services to be adequate, and found a wide disparity of access to a variety of treatments and services for ophthalmic disease across the country. This means that in some areas of the UK patients will be going blind in the belief that no hope exists, while in others, medical attention is received too late to prevent blindness.

...the UK has a poor record compared to other European countries in other areas of treatment and services for sight-related problems...

The PA is calling on the government to implement as a matter of urgency a number of simple recommendations (see box) that would vastly improve patient experience in this area.

The AMD Alliance - a coalition of charities comprising the RNIB, the Macular Disease Society, Age Concern, Fight for Sight, Wales Council for the Blind and Fighting Blindness - is concentrating its efforts on raising awareness of a specific type of ophthalmic disease, known as macular degeneration (or AMD). Every week 300 people across the UK are affected by AMD, which is the leading cause of sight loss in older people and can reduce vision irreversibly within a matter of a few months. Estimates suggest that the number of cases has doubled since the 1950s and, because of the growing elderly population, is likely to treble during the next 25 years.

Despite these facts, very few people have heard of AMD, and sufferers have had difficulty in obtaining both fast, effective treatment and the specialist services - such as low vision aids - that they desperately need. The PA survey found that nearly a quarter of health authorities / boards offer their patients no treatment for AMD at all and that only one per cent of them are able to offer patients an appointment with a specialist within a month, even though this may be crucial to saving a patient's sight.

Availability of information on diseases such as AMD and prompt access to modern treatments and services that allow sufferers to continue to lead as independent a life as possible should be a basic right in any modern society. I hope the government will act to make this a reality for the thousands of people affected by ophthalmic disease in the UK.