Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the number of diabetic patients whose eyesight may be damaged due to delayed care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have put extra measures in place during the COVID-19 pandemic so that people living with diabetes can continue to receive care. Diabetic Eye Screening (DES) services have not been paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the availability of screening facilities, and in some cases the need to redeploy staff, has led to rescheduling of DES appointments.

DES providers are now working to restore full screening services, prioritising those most at risk of sight loss, followed by those who attended their last screening invitation and for whom there were no signs of eye damage.