"GP Access"

My mum, who is in her 70s, began experiencing severe pain in her eye on a Friday. By the weekend, the pain had worsened, and she developed a pounding headache, nausea, and vomiting. She couldn’t eat or sleep. Her eye was visibly swollen, red, bloodshot, and oozing fluid. She was frightened and knew something was seriously wrong.

On Monday, she tried repeatedly to phone her GP surgery. When she finally got through at 4:40pm, she explained her symptoms to a member of staff. She was told a doctor had advised she should see an optician. No explanation was given, and she was not offered a call or appointment. As a woman of her generation, she took this advice at face value, even though she felt sick and thought this was a medical emergency, not an eyesight issue. It left her confused, unsure, and even more unwell.

Later that evening, still in intense pain, she went to Lagan Valley out-of-hours but was told she needed to phone first and was sent away without being seen. It wasn’t until Tuesday when she spoke to a local pharmacist that a counter staff member suggested visiting the optician directly. Thankfully, the Opticians saw her immediately. They tested the pressure in both eyes. One was normal (12), but the affected eye was 55 — dangerously high. They immediately rang the Royal Victoria Hospital, who phoned Mum an hour later and told her to come in as an emergency case.

She was treated for angle-closure glaucoma with IV drips and laser surgery to relieve the pressure. It was an emergency — the pressure in her eye was high enough to permanently damage her vision. Her potassium levels were also dangerously low. She is now home, recovering, but her sight in the affected eye remains blurry, and her independence may be impacted permanently.

Mum has always trusted her GP and avoided ever being a bother. She left these experiences feeling anxious, afraid, and let down — not just by her GP surgery, but by a system that failed to assess how serious her condition was. If she hadn’t acted for herself and been sent to the right place by a pharmacist and an optician, she could have lost her sight completely. She is still shaken by how vulnerable she felt, and by how easily she was dismissed.