The Canadian National Institute for the Blind says Newfoundlanders and Labradorians should not have to choose between going broke, and going blind.

The CNIB Foundation is joining with the Association of Optometrists in urging the provincial government to remove the cap on the number of intravitreal injections for patients.

The injections are needed for people losing their sight due to neovascular age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema and other serious retinal conditions.

The CNIB says revisiting the caps on those injections has the potential to preserve sight, and limit the visual disability and societal costs associated with those diseases.

This is the only province in Canada that caps treatment to 15 injections for AMD and 9 for people with diabetic macular edema.

Compounding the problem, according to the CNIB, is that Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest rate of diabetes per capita in the country. They call the issue “critically important.”