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Diabetic Eye Screening Wales annual statistical report 2019-20

Details:

Published on: 15th November 2021

  • All Wales/National
  • Annual

Welcome to the third annual statistical report published by Diabetic Eye Screening Wales (DESW); Public Health Wales.

DESW (previously Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Service for Wales) was initially commissioned as a national service by Welsh Government in July 2002. DESW became operational in June 2003 and by 2004 was delivering a service to participants in all Health Board areas. The service was hosted by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board until April 2016 when it transferred to join the other population based Screening Programmes delivered by Screening Division, Public Health Wales.

The service aims to detect diabetic retinopathy before sight loss occurs. Research evidence shows that with early identification and treatment, loss of vision can be prevented in 70 – 90% of people with sight threatening diabetic retinopathy.

People aged 12 and over with a diagnosis of diabetes, who are registered with a GP in Wales, are eligible and are invited for regular retinal screening with DESW.

In March 2020, the difficult decision was taken to pause some of the national screening programmes in Wales, including DESW, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to pause affected clinics scheduled for after March 17th. Although this only affected a very small proportion of the year 2019-20, we are also aware that the emerging pandemic from January – March affected the behaviour of some of those invited for screening with some opting to defer or cancel their appointment.

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Diabetic Eye Screening Wales Annual Statistical Report 2019-20

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