The Eye Health Coalition met with a cross-party group of MPs to help push ahead with its mission to vastly improve access to good quality eye care for all New Zealanders.
Darren Ward, the coalition’s independent facilitator, said the group had put aside professional and organisational issues to focus on the patients, outcomes and objectives, to more effectively address and promote better service provision in the sector. “Rather than talk about problems, we talk about solutions. The thinking in the group is now ‘we can do that together because we think the same thing’.”
The coalition was formed nearly two years ago from a growing sense of frustration about the lack of progress in eye health and fragmentation in the sector that was holding back access to services. It’s comprised of representatives from each of the different eye health sectors, including optometry, ophthalmology, academia and eye health service providers, and was recently expanded to include the patient voice by involving Glaucoma New Zealand (GNZ) and Macular Degeneration New Zealand (MDNZ). It has three key goals to improve access to quality eye care:
- Developing an understanding and perception of eye health across public and political sectors within New Zealand
- Committing to research to underpin an evidence-based approach to address eye health initiatives
- Developing a continuum of eye care in the New Zealand market to ensure there is a clear understanding of the pathway the public should follow as they progress through the system
It has also established a new cross-party group of politicians called the Parliamentary Friends of Eye Health (PFEH), co-chaired by the Health Select Committee chair, Essilor Vision Foundation champion and Labour MP Louisa Wall and National MP, Simon O’Connor. When it was launched, the Friends of Eye Health group got the biggest sign-up by MPs to any “friends” groups, said Ward.
