As the voice of the profession, we work closely with our members, partners across the eye care sector and policymakers to improve public policy so key challenges facing ophthalmology services across the UK are recognised and addressed.
Since our last roundup, we:
- Made the case for an increase in ophthalmology specialty training places and a review of the use of independent sector providers by the NHS in our 2025 Spending Review submission. The Spending Review, anticipated in June 2025, will provide long term funding allocations – including for healthcare in England.
- Supported NHS England’s proposal that commissioners in England must set payment limits for providers delivering elective activity, outlined in their consultation on the 2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme. Our response raised concerns about the current commissioning framework and highlighted that commissioners need more control of scarce resources so they can better meet patient need. We highlighted that comprehensive hospital eye services need to be suitably resourced, to enable safe patient care for all eye conditions, training and clinical research.
- Participated in NHS England’s ongoing crowdsourcing exercise to gather ideas for improving eye care services, which is open until 24 March. We offered solutions to the four challenges on making eye care available for all, moving more eye care services into the community, improving eye care for children and young people and making eye care greener. We strongly encourage ophthalmologists, other eye care professions and paints to share their ideas too, via the NHS Futures webpage.
- Launched our AI directory that tracks the use of AI as a medical device (AIaMD) tools in NHS ophthalmology units. Members interested in this rapidly growing technology can see an overview of AI’s impact on the specialty. They are invited to alert the College to any developments not already captured in the directory via [email protected].
- Supported the introduction in Northern Ireland of a statutory organisational duty of candour for health and social care organisations, while expressing concern about the idea of statutory individual duty of candour, potentially accompanied by criminal sanctions. In a joint letter to the Northern Ireland Government with other royal colleges, we outlined that while an organisational duty of candour would help promote openness and honesty and move Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK, an individual duty of candour could increase the reluctance of healthcare professionals to speak out. Proposals are currently being developed in this area as part of the Being Open framework.