Page 5224 - Week 13 - Thursday, 29 November 2018

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(8) What is the level of demand for public ophthalmology surgical services in the ACT;

(9) What contingency arrangements does ACT Health have in place to meet the demand when there are insufficient public ophthalmology surgical services to meet demand in the ACT.

(10) If there are no contingency arrangements, (a) why not and (b) what is the Government doing to build the surgical services so they are sufficient to meet the demand.

(11) What alternatives (other than private services) are available to public patients requiring ophthalmology general or specialist medical services or ophthalmology surgical services.

(12) What assistance, including but not limited to referrals and transport assistance, does the ACT Government provide to public patients needing to access these alternative (non-private) services.

(13) What is the model of care for the ACT Health Eye Clinic, including, but not limited to, the scope of services provided.

Ms Fitzharris: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:

(1)

(a) General ophthalmology care and treatment is provided through GPs, Emergency Departments, Optometrists, and Private ophthalmologists.

(b) Specialist Ophthalmology includes vitreoretinal, intraocular lens replacements, macular degeneration, glaucoma surgery, complex paediatric ophthalmology, neuro-ophthalmology corneal replacement; oculoplastic and uveitis services and traumatic eye injury/acute eye ophthalmology services.

(2)

(a) Not applicable.

(b) On 26 October 2018 there were a total of 735 patients waiting for a Specialist Ophthalmology appointment.

(3)

(a) Not applicable.

(b)

(4)

(a) Not applicable.

(b) ACT Health has developed a business plan for outgoing years for specialist ophthalmology services. Given our small jurisdictional size, there will always be some subspecialty services that will need to be referred to Sydney, due to lack of sufficient local expertise; caused by a lack of critical patient load to make a service viable. The Ophthalmology department is looking into a shared care model with community based general ophthalmology services where applicable. The Eye Clinic attends to approximately 4000 Emergency Department attendances per

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