VISION 2020 New Zealand Media release

12 October 2011

Help eliminate avoidable blindness this World Sight Day

An estimated 284 million people worldwide are blind or partially sighted, yet 80% of cases are due to causes which could have been prevented, treated or cured.

VISION 2020 New Zealand has partnered with the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind to produce Clear Focus: The economic impact of vision loss in New Zealand in 2009.

Conducted by Access Economics, the research looks at the best available evidence to estimate the number of Māori and non-Māori New Zealanders with mild to severe vision loss. The costs of vision loss to government, industry and the New Zealand community are calculated and projected to 2020.

The research

Clear Focus found that:

• Vision loss cost New Zealand society $2.8 billion in 2009, and this figure is increasing each year.

• Without a focused effort on preventing sight loss, the number of New Zealanders over 40 who have vision loss is projected to rise from 125,000 to 174,000 by 2020.

• Direct health costs alone would more than double to $523 million by 2020, compared with $198 million in 2009.

• The Māori population is disproportionately affected by vision loss. The overall prevalence of vision impairment and blindness in Māori aged 45-74 years is twice that of non-Māori.

Formally established in 2009, VISION 2020 New Zealand is a National Body of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight.

VISION 2020 New Zealand's vision is to eliminate avoidable blindness and vision loss by the year 2020 and ensure that blindness and vision impairment are no longer barriers to full participation in the community.

The Working Group's prime objective is to develop an evidence base for population eye health and eye health policy in NZ.

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... to a lean enterprise that has the potential to alter for the good, the lives of thousands of Kiwis simply by changing the way we think and act with respect to tackling the causes of preventable sight loss.

Evidence suggests that there are inequities in society as to where this burden of sight loss is felt. Inequity means unjust and unfair treatment on the basis of difference. A civilised health service is diminished if that fact is proven and not addressed.

Blindness is more than a debilitating nuisance. Humans are essentially visual in behaviour. Avoidable blindness is a scourge to be avoided at all costs. Working together across sectors we can make more of a difference than by sticking to the comfort of our professional silos. That is what today is about.

The welcome to delegates (edited) from Don McKenzie, OBE, Chairman, VISION 2020 New Zealand, on the occasion of the VISION 2020 NZ's first 'Population Eye Health Workshop' held in Wellington in August 2009.