To meet the ever-increasing waiting times for an appointment with the ophthalmologist (7 out of 10 French people aged 20 or over wear glasses or contact lenses), the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) on Monday submitted to the government its visual industry report. In this report of a hundred pages, the IGAS recommends a series of measures aimed at relieving the offices of ophthalmologists of patients suffering from sight problems that are not serious.
According to the DREES survey carried out in 2016 and 2017, the time between the request for an appointment and the actual appointment is on average 80 days. A quarter of appointments are held within 20 days, half (median) within 52 days, and a quarter after 112 days. To reduce this delay, the report initially proposes:
- To launch annual information campaigns on the possibility of renewing prescriptions by opticians and orthoptists.
- To authorize opticians-spectacle makers and orthoptists to communicate outside their stores and practices on the possibility of renewing equipment.
- To extend the validity period of prescriptions for corrective lenses for young adults (16 to 42 years) by two years.
- To authorize opticians-spectacle makers to adapt their corrective lens prescription to the patient in the event of a manifest error or discomfort.
And if the times for making appointments do not decrease significantly by the end of 2021, the report recommends “authorizing the first prescription of corrective lenses by opticians-spectacle makers and orthoptists, for adults of 16 to 42 years old with weak vision correction, as is done in other European countries”.
IGAS also wishes to develop telemedicine in optical stores and create a master’s degree (bac + 5) in advanced visual health practice, open to orthoptists and opticians-eyewear manufacturers (bac + 3 level)
The visual sector in figures
- 5882 ophthalmologists who provide prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases.
- 5,185 orthoptists, who are involved in rehabilitation and increasingly in pre-examination functions with ophthalmologists.
- 38,506 eyewear opticians who adapt and sell glasses and contact lenses.
14 million nearsighted and 11 million with astigmatism
When writing this report, IGAS asked Inserm researchers in Bordeaux for an estimate of the number of people with visual impairment in France:
- Astigmatism (≥1D): 11.0 M
- Mild myopia (-0.75;-3): 9.0 M
- Medium myopia (-6;-3): 3.7 M
- Severe myopia (<-6): 1.2 M
- Moderate and severe hypermetropia: 2.3 M
- Glaucoma: 0.8M
- Diabetic retinopathy: 1.0 M
- AMD – early: 2.0 M
- AMD – advanced: 0.4 M
- Cataract: 2.4 M
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