New patch club for kids with lazy eyes

This week sees staff at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital launch a new Patch club for children with lazy eyes in bid to encourage and support parents to keep on with the treatment.

Children with a lazy eye (where the eye sight in one eye is weaker than the other) are often treated by putting a patch over their good eye. This makes the weaker eye work harder, in order to make it see better. But many children find it difficult to stick with wearing the patch because, initially, their vision is very poor when the good eye is covered.

Orthoptists at the hospital (health professionals who detect and treat eye muscle and associated sight problems) are launching the Patch club to help children and support their parents.

Ten children, of pre-school age, are booked in to the first two-hour Patch club at the hospital on the morning of April 9. Patches and activities for the children are being provided by a team of orthoptists, and each child who completes the club will get a certificate.

Head orthoptist Tracey Salisbury said: “This new club is designed to be fun for the children and a relaxed way of trying to get children used to wearing their patches. Wearing a patch is a very simple treatment that can do a lot to improve the child’s vision and we want to do everything we can to encourage children to continue wearing their patches.”

If the new hospital Patch club is a success it is hoped to run the club on a monthly basis for children who need to wear an eye patch.