January is the perfect time to reflect on growth and innovation and to highlight key College milestones.
I’m privileged to have completed another year as president in 2024, continuing to champion the specialty and helping to keep the College firm-footed in what was a pivotal year with the change of UK government.
Looking back at 2024
Last year we saw some great wins for the College, including a host of new members joining our College community. Welcome!
We launched the new ophthalmic specialist training curriculum in the summer: the culmination of several years of hard work by the Curriculum Subcommittee and project team, with support and input from a wide variety of stakeholders. I want to wish those undertaking their training the best of luck for the journey ahead.
It was good to see us enhance our international exams offer during 2024 by not only continuing to host exams in countries including Egypt, Singapore and Malaysia, but also announcing that we’re bringing FRCOphth exams to Dubai this year. This news was, I know, well received by eye care professionals in the United Arab Emirates and the wider region.
From a policy perspective we worked hard to get our voice heard across political spectrum and regions. We contributed to the National Clinical Strategy for Ophthalmology for Wales and to NHS England’s 10-year plan, and, following the General Election, we called on the new government to prioritise crucial long-term decisions needed to put patient care on a more sustainable footing.
Looking forward: Thought leadership, influencing opportunities and enhancing our brand
It’s been a busy start to 2025. Earlier this month the government published its plan for reforming elective care in England. I think we all agree that the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) is quite right to be focusing efforts and resources on tackling backlogs for planned care but this must include waiting lists for both outpatients and operations. While it’s helpful to have some clarity on how NHS England (NHSE) plans to work with the independent sector going forward, lessons must be learnt from past experiences if resources are to be used in a sustainable and efficient manner, in line with patient need.
This year I’ll continue my call for an investigation of how independent sector capacity can best be commissioned to take advantage of providers’ high productivity without making essential comprehensive eye services unsustainable.
As College president I will push government, DHSC and NHSE to articulate what they want their new model of health care to look like, supporting them to ensure the correct levers are in place so that commissioners can control their budgets and prioritise by clinical need effectively. We also mustn’t overlook the need for continued investment in the NHS workforce and infrastructure: no plan can work without it.
In the spring, we’ll be publishing our report on the physician associate (PA) pilot that we’ve been running with NHSE. We’ll share those findings with NHSE and, of course, with all of you.
Plans are underway on some new College projects, including better communication of the benefits of membership and how you can get involved in volunteering. A particular focus for us is to expand our panel of Portfolio Pathway (formerly called CESR) assessors to help get more doctors on to the specialist register. Please do consider joining the large number of clinicians who volunteer their time for the College.
We are also planning to launch a revamped website and our new online journal Eye Open.
I’m looking forward to seeing lots of you at Congress this year in Liverpool. We’ll unveil the programme and open registration in the first week of February. For now, I’d encourage you to save the week of 19 to 22 May and make sure that you don’t miss out on four days of learning, innovation and networking.
We’ve made a positive start on promoting a College commitment to sustainability, and I’m keen to support this more widely throughout 2025, alongside our Net Zero Working Group.
All in all, I’m looking forward to 2025 with a renewed sense of enthusiasm. As president, I will continue to work alongside our members, College staff, NHS and partner organisations, the General Medical Council and other groups to highlight our priorities for ophthalmology.
