Labour will send patients to Specsavers and other high street opticians to cut NHS waiting lists.
It wants private providers to carry out routine checks and scans to free up NHS specialists for more complex procedures.
There are currently 613,000 patients on NHS waiting lists for eye care, 15,000 of whom have been waiting more than a year.
The party claims some patients have been left waiting up to five years for treatment while research from the Association of Optometrists last year found 551 patients have suffered sight lose due to delayed appointments.
Wes Streeting said: ‘Thousands of patients have been waiting more than a year for eye care, putting their sight at risk.
There are currently 613,000 patients on NHS waiting lists for eye care, 15,000 of whom have been waiting more than a year
‘High street opticians have the kit and staff to do basic checks and scans. Labour will partner with them to get patients the treatment they need.
‘This is just one way Labour will reform the NHS and use spare capacity in the private sector to beat the Tory backlog and cut NHS waiting lists.’
Freedom of Information requests showed a patient at Whittington Health NHS Trust in London waited five years for eye care.
Another at Mid and South Essex Trust waited four years, according to the data.
The shadow health secretary has also suggested that doctors should be paid less for overtime to help clear the NHS backlog.
As part of its promise of an extra 40,000 appointments and procedures every week, he suggested overtime to cut the NHS waiting list should be capped at time-and-a-half.
Doctors’ union the BMA recommends consultants charge up to £161 per hour for extra day work and £269 per hour for evening and night work – around three times their contracted rate.
While ultimately down to hospitals and staff, he told the Health Service Journal that he does not want them to ‘throw good money after bad’.
He said: ‘If we win the election [we’ll try] to give trusts and integrated care boards the freedom and flexibility to work out how best to deliver those appointments at a local level, because it will look different in different places.
‘What we’re not prepared to do is throw good money after bad.’
But the Tories dismissed Labour’s plans, adding that the Labour-ran Welsh NHS had the longest waiting times in Great Britain.
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said: ‘If Labour had a credible plan to cut waiting lists, they would be delivering it in Labour-run Wales. Instead, waiting lists are at a record high and patients are waiting eight weeks longer on average than patients in England.
‘This is a glimpse of what Keir Starmer’s “blueprint” for the rest of the UK looks like. A Labour supermajority will give Keir Starmer unchecked power to do the exact same in England – and he’ll have to put up taxes by at least £2,094 for every working household in order to fund it.
‘Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives have taken bold action to cut waiting lists at the fastest rate in over a decade outside the pandemic. We’ve recruiting record numbers of doctors and nurses and have opened 160 community diagnostic centres, which will deliver 7 million additional checks, tests and scans to ensure patients get the care they need.
‘Just 130,000 people who are thinking of voting Reform or Liberal Democrat can prevent a Labour supermajority by sticking with the plan and voting Conservative on Thursday.’
