What to do if 10 days after eye injury that caused a scratched cornea still the vision is blurry ?

My brother lives in England, where they have socialized medicine - they do very little for you unless you DO pay out of pocket, and yet your ARE paying in your taxes for what you are so called "getting for free". He called home to say that 10 days ago he had been injured on the job where he works outside groundskeeping and was poked in the eye by a tree branch. First, he went to a hospital and was then sent home. Then was called on the phone  and told that he should go to ANOTHER hospital. He was told his cornea was scratched and given ointment to put in his eye. Well, now 10 days after the injury, my brother STILL has blurred vision in that eye. He is so used to their terrible medical system that he just puts up with it, but I don't want my brother going BLIND in that eye ! I hope it is NOT TOO LATE for something to be done. He said the emergency room he was taken to was like a ZOO - that they were going to "fast track" him through and  it STILL it took forever. I told him not to take a chance with losing his vision and I am worried  like mad about him. I know my brother, and if he feels it's like fighting "city hall" over there, well ... I want to call him again and impress on him to do SOMETHING !  Any help here ?  WHY is his vision still blurred 10 days later after treatment ? And don't you think he needs to go back to a physician about this ? He said something dumb, like he'll just get a stronger lens next time in his glasses for that eye...?? How dumb is that ?  How can a person LIVE like that after it just happened when evidently something is not right, I don't know. But something HAS to be wrong here... Surely they didn't expect him to lose his vision out of this ? How could they not have him come back to be checked ???

[Ray T Oyakawa, MD]

A scratch from a tree branch can cause an infection.  He should see a private ophthalmologist ASAP.

Dr. O.