Episode Details

Eye care in the public system is in crisis, with over 125,000 outstanding appointments and 20,000 patients waiting double the recommended time—leading to irreversible vision loss. An aging population, outdated tech, and staff shortages have created a perfect storm, straining clinics managing chronic conditions like glaucoma and macular degeneration. Doctors are frustrated, seeing preventable blindness as the system collapses under demand. Creative fixes like using nurses help, but hiring is impossible without funding. Wait times spiked in Auckland and Waikato, with over 3,000 overdue follow-ups alone. Experts call it a systemic failure demanding urgent investment in people, tech, and infrastructure—because preventing vision loss now costs far less than treating it later. Cross-party support is needed to fix this growing emergency.

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