BMJ 1994;309:1371 (19 November)

Letters

The sight test fee Similar experience in Leeds

Similar experience in Leeds

EDITOR, - D A H Laidlaw and colleagues warn of a possible increase in the incidence of preventable blindness and suggest that the reduction in the detection of glaucoma in Bristol may reflect a sustained nationwide phenomenon.1 In Leeds the average monthly number of sight tests performed under the General Ophthalmic Service fell from 14769 in 1988 to 4977 in 1989 for May onwards, after the introduction of charges for sight tests (Leeds Family Practitioner Committee, personal communication, 1989). A similar trend was found in national surveys of the general population and of optometry businesses.2,3

Between June 1988 and January 1989 we performed a prospective study in which we examined 100 consecutive patients referred to St James's University Hospital, Leeds, with suspected glaucoma. 97 patients had been referred by optometrists, of whom 48 were true positive glaucoma referrals according to the criteria used by Laidlaw and . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

The sight test fee: effect on ophthalmology referrals and rate of glaucoma detection
D A H Laidlaw, P A Bloom, A O Hughes, J M Sparrow, and V J Marmion
BMJ 1994 309: 634-636. [Abstract] [Full Text]

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ