Preventing childhood visual impairment is a priority of the World Health Organisation’s “Vision 2020 - The Right to Sight” due to the high emotional, social and economic cost for the individual and the wider community. Many causes of childhood visual impairment are preventable. Ocular screening programmes for newborns are recommended to ensure timely detection and treatment of common paediatric ocular conditions. All newborns in New Zealand should have their eyes checked with the red reflex test by their lead maternity carer, which may be a midwife, general practitioner or obstetrician1. In addition, specialist retinal screening is available for infants at risk of retinopathy of prematurity, those born extremely premature (<30 weeks gestational age) or infants with a very low birth weight (<1250 grams)2.
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