News & Views

In the Annual Report 2020, Bernie Chang, President of The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) praises the commitment shown by all ophthalmologists who battled daily to deliver eye care services for patients during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This new ‘Vision Atlas’ represents the first Public Health England (PHE) output solely focused on eye health. Ophthalmology is the largest outpatient specialty in England. The atlas shows there were 9 million outpatient attendances for vision in 2019/20.

This excellent guidance will help ophthalmologists answer questions they may have when presented with patients with low vision needs, such as “Which patients should be referred to low vision services?”, or “Is there a level of visual acuity below which a patient should be referred?” As in referral for cataract surgery, it depends on the functional vision of the patient, and their visual requirements for daily living.

The College has been made aware that the manufacturers of Visudyne (verteporfin) are experiencing significant production delays and new stocks of Visudyne will not be available for the UK market until early 2022. Due to the low volume of circulating stock of Visudyne in the UK the Department of Health and Social Care has made the decision to divert the remaining stock to the national ophthalmic oncology centres.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) has developed Age Related Macular Degeneration Commissioning Guidance June 2021. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has accredited the process used by The Royal College of Ophthalmologists to develop this guidance. It sets out the principles and minimum standards of care for AMD to decrease variations of care across AMD services in England and Wales.

The Scientific Committee are looking for suggestions for parallel sessions. These are 60, 90 or 120 minutes long and will take place over the first three days. We would also like suggestions for the subspecialty day on 26 May. At this stage, all we need is a brief synopsis, including aims and objectives and what areas the session will cover. We can accept suggestions that you would like to chair yourself or things you would like to see.

Eye’s 2020 Impact Factor is now 3.775; a big jump up from 2.455 in 2019! The journal’s rank within ophthalmology journals has also changed from 22/60 to 12/62.

The paper reports the findings of the British Childhood Vision Impairment and Blindness study (BCVISG) which relied on ophthalmologists and paediatricians across the UK’s four nations reporting newly diagnosed children with VI/SVIBL through the British Ophthalmological Study Unit (BOSU) and the equivalent national paediatric surveillance unit (BPSU).

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) is pleased to announce the expansion of our prestigious Fellowship in Ophthalmology (FRCOphth) examinations overseas with new international host centres opening in India, Egypt and Trinidad and Tobago in 2022. Applications open from October 2021.

Congratulations to Professor Caroline MacEwen DBE MD FRCOphth FRCS, who has been appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Ophthalmology and Healthcare Leadership during the Covid-19 Response. Professor MacEwen is a former President of The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) and former Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.