Better Health for 2008?

First, the good news! I’ve been pressing Kingston’s Primary Care Trust for months now to improve their screening of diabetics. It is lagging far behind target and behind many other PCTs. Diabetes can affect sight and even cause blindness, unless signs of deterioration are caught early and the right treatment then provided. So a programme of screening for diabetic retinopathy is vital.

Kingston’s NHS was refusing to give any financial commitment to expand the current temporary screening programme or to introduce a permanent programme with 100% coverage next year. Now they have – which is a great victory for preventative health care.

And the bad news? Following complaints from constituents, I’ve looked into waiting times for audiology at Kingston Hospital. Working with the RNID and following Freedom of Information responses from almost 90 PCTs, I’ve found out that the local waiting times for fitting digital hearing aids at Kingston are the worst in the country. On average, a new adult patient has to wait an appalling 125 weeks to receive a hearing aid.

The next longest wait, according to the RNID’s research, is just 78 weeks, at Suffolk. Yet 67 of the 87 PCTs surveyed reported waits of 25 weeks or less.

Why does it take Kingston an extra 100 weeks or more, just to fit a hearing aid?

I am now pressing both the PCT and Kingston Hospital to act urgently to slash these waiting times. Let’s hope soon that the hard of hearing can be celebrating a success along with diabetics.