Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in the UK in the under-65 age group. The North East London Diabetes Eye Screening Programme is part of the National Screening Programme for Diabetic Retinopathy – aimed at reducing the risk of loss of vision for people with diabetes.
The NE London programme arranges screening for people with diabetes in the following boroughs:
Each link below will take you to a map of how to get to the screening site in that borough:
Barking & Dagenham - Porters Avenue Health Centre
City of London and Hackney - Homerton Hospital
Newham - Liberty Bridge Road
Newham - Manor Park
Tower Hamlets - Mile End Hospital
Havering - 12 local opticians
Redbridge - Cranbrook Road
Waltham Forest - Leyton Green
To arrange an appointment you can contact us by phone on 0208 510 5911 or by email eyescreening@nhs.net.
If you already have diabetes before becoming pregnant, you do need regular eye screening during your pregnancy.
If you develop diabetes during pregnancy, this is called ‘gestational diabetes’. People with gestational diabetes do not need eye screening.
Diabetic eye disease (often called diabetic retinopathy) can develop for the first time during pregnancy. A woman who already has diabetic retinopathy before she gets pregnant, may find that it worsens during her pregnancy. For these reasons eye screening is usually carried out more frequently – at the first antenatal check up, and again once or twice later in the pregnancy.
The aim of all this screening is to pick up any risky changes in the eye, so that these can have expert assessment, and if necessary laser treatment, at the right stage.
Keeping your diabetes under good control normally, and especially if you are planning to become pregnant, lowers your risk of having problems with diabetic retinopathy during a pregnancy. (Good diabetic control before getting pregnant also lowers your risk of having a child with a birth abnormality).
If you have diabetes and are pregnant you will see more of midwives, doctors and eye screeners, than you would do without the diabetes. The great majority of women manage to enjoy their pregnancy despite this intrusion into their lives, knowing that it increases their safety, and the safety of their future child.