Make eye care an integral part of universal health coverage
In order to eliminate inequalities in access to, and provision of, eye care
services across the population, it is essential to plan these services
carefully and according to the best available information about
population needs, while ensuring quality. Until recently, the eye care
sector has concentrated on reporting unmet needs. Effective planning
of quality eye care services as part of UHC also requires information
about ongoing and met needs and ensuring that the cost of priority
eye care interventions does not expose the user to catastrophic
expenditures.
Recommended actions are:
Collecting and reporting information on the met and unmet eye care
needs of the national population.
Developing a package of eye care interventions to respond to
population needs for strategic inclusion into the budgeting of UHC.
Improving access with financial risk protection for priority eye care
interventions, especially for low-income groups and other
disadvantaged groups.
Defining the desired outcomes of eye care interventions, for quality
assurance, and reporting effective coverage.
Defining input, output and outcome indicators to monitor the quality
of eye care at the national level, and to make comparisons across
countries.
Ensuring that individuals with vision impairment or blindness that
cannot be treated have access to high-quality vision rehabilitation to
optimize functioning.