Read the latest RCOphth news updates and guidance here.
In 2019/20, there were 9 million outpatient attendances for all five vision treatment specialties1. As the leading outpatient speciality in the NHS, the appointment of Louisa Wickham to the post of National Clinical Director (NCD) for Eye Care is long overdue and welcomed.
Letters have been sent recently to NHS organisations across England and the devolved administrations encouraging them to continue to look favourably on requests from doctors seeking their support to undertake national or regional work for the wider benefit of the public, and of health services.
Wales has had many problems with the delivery of effective eye care services for a long time, made a lot worse by the challenges of the Covid pandemic, exacerbating backlogs which are potentially putting patient care at risk. The Pyott Report provides recommendations to improve services.
This is an online event, held by NHS England and NHS Improvement eye care pathways improvement programme, the National Eye Care Recovery and Transformation Programme (NECRTP).
Mel Hingorani is RCOphth Honorary Secretary and Joint Clinical Lead of the National Eye Care Recovery and Transformation Programme (NECRTP) and is a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital. In this article, she reflects in her College capacity on what has been achieved by the programme so far and what still needs to happen.
The government and NHS England published a joint plan last week setting out how they intend to support the recovery of elective services over the next three years. RCOphth Policy Manager Jordan Marshall summarises the key implications for ophthalmology services.
Over the next financial year, NHS systems in England have been asked to reduce outpatient follow-up appointments by a quarter. This RCOphth briefing provides information on steps ophthalmology departments can take, and the need for NHS trusts to avoid a blanket approach towards implementation.
In this episode with speak with Melanie Hingorani, a Consultant Ophthalmologist from Moorfields Eye Hospital and the Clinical Lead for the National Outpatient Programme (NOTP) in Ophthalmology.
Prior to COVID-19, approximately 80% of Trusts were engaged with at least one study, with on average 15,000 patients recruited to Ophthalmology studies per year. The NIHR’s Ophthalmology Specialty Group (OSG) for the Clinical Research Network has been working closely with its regional leads across the UK to support the sites where 41% of portfolio studies have been paused because of COVID.
The RCOphth has released its annual report for the National Ophthalmology Database (NOD) Audit 2018-2019.
