Background: This study assessed the barriers to sight impairment certification in the East London Borough of\nTower Hamlets amongst patients attending the Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Service (DRSS).\nMethods: All patients who attended DRSS between 1stApril 2009 and 31st of March 2010 and whose recorded best\ncorrected visual acuity (BCVA) at DRSS fulfilled the requirements for sight impairment in the UK were included. An\nadditional 24 patients whose general practitioners (GPs) reported them to be certified blind due to no perception\nof light (NPL) vision were re-examined to ascertain the reason for certification, and their potential social and visual\naids needs.\nResults: 78 patients were identified with certifiable vision and were reviewed: 10 deceased in the preceding\n12 months; 60 were not known to be certified. Of these, 57 attended further assessment, 27 were found to have\nnon-certifiable vision, 9 were referred for further interventions, 9 were certified and 9 were found to be eligible, but\ndeclined certification. Five patients were registered due to diabetic eye disease.\nOf those 24 reported by the GP of NPL vision, only 4 had true NPL, the rest had usable vision. Only two of them\nwere certified blind due to diabetes.\nConclusions: Our data shows that sight certification in patients with diabetes might be underestimated and these\npatients often have non-diabetes related visual loss. We propose that data on certifiable visual impairment could\nserve, along with existing certification databases, as a resource for quality of care standards assessment and service\nprovision for patients with diabetes.
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