Does anyone else over 60 with Glaucoma pay for eye lubrication in the UK ?

[muddledme]

Apparently North East Essex patients have to pay for eye lubricants, also some areas of Somerset. Does anyone else ? It would be very useful to know.

HRT now only costs £20 a year available to all women (probably only needed for a few years), so why not all Gaucoma medications ? Is lifetime conservation of eyesight and preventing very sore eyes not even more important ?

I would be very grateful for any information, which may help expose this ignorant neglect.

[Littletreasures]

I’m under 60 and get my dry eye drops on prescription from my GP. I pay for my prescriptions. I also pay for my glaucoma eye drop prescriptions and my asthma inhaler prescriptions. I was refused HRT, because my symptoms didn’t include hot flushes, so I have to pay for this privately at a cost of £332 a year. It adds up having medical conditions and more so if you are female.

[Beecalmed in reply to Littletreasures]

Yup!

[mrswaffle]

I’m in Dorset and I pay for my dry eye drops. I already use glaucoma drops three times daily, so decided I didn’t want to be dependent on yet another drop, if I could avoid it! I decided I would find out if there were alternatives. I try to make sure I blink enough (especially when using screens) and I also get outside regularly; I don’t know if it is activity (I walk and do gardening) or just the effect of being outside, but it helps. And no, I don’t believe ophthalmology gets the priority it deserves in the NHS. An ophthalmologist once told me that ophthalmology has the most outpatient appointments of any hospital department. I googled and found a reference that says that, in 2019, there were nine million ophthalmology outpatient appointments and the department carried out 6% of all surgery performed. I think it’s a reflection of the situation in the NHS, which is simply not able to cope with the demands on it.

[muddledme in reply to mrswaffle]

Hello mrswaffle,

Thank you for letting me know you have to pay for your dry eye drops...all ammunition for my next step if required !

I agree that being outside certainly helps my dry eyes and assume it may be the humidity, as I am also usually better in the summer. The medics always tell me to use the lubricants frequently to help preserve the corneas. They think all the preservatives in some of the previous drops has caused deterioration of the corneas.

Yes , so many opthalmology OPD appointments which will be increasing with an ageing population and with poorly controlled NHS care . Diabetes type 2 has increased so much which is also a risk for Glaucoma, yet this type of disease can usually be prevented or treated with diet and lifestyle, and as Beecalmed has said they get free prescriptions.

Best wishes

[Quiet_Lin]

I also pay for my lubricating drops. I live in west London. Infact, I've never been offered them on prescription. Hylo-Forte does the trick for me - preservative free - and cheaper online than in the chemist.