News & Views

Disabled doctors and medical students can expect greater support to pursue their careers, following new guidance published by the General Medical Council (GMC).

In January 2019 The Royal College of Ophthalmologists alerted members to changes arising from The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), authorising the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) to collect performance and cost information about private healthcare.

NHS England have made a commitment in the NHS Long Term Plan to commission an in-school visual assessment for all children in special schools in England. This will allow visual assessment, refraction and dispensing of spectacles (where appropriate).

The NOD audit collects data on cataract surgery performed in England and Wales and provides individual surgeons, healthcare providers and the public with benchmarked reports on performance, with the aim of improving the care provided to patients.

Lola Solebo, NIHR Moorfields BRC and UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, has been awarded The Ulverscroft David Owen Prize by The Royal College of Ophthalmologists and Ulverscroft Foundation for the best piece of research published in paediatric ophthalmology over the past three years.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) has endorsed the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) statement in favour of a research-active NHS, alongside numerous other medical colleges, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, and National Institute for Health Research.

The British Council for Prevention of Blindness supports research into the prevention of blindness in low and low-middle income countries throughout the world.

More than two million people have reduced vision in the UK. There are nearly eight million appointments every year in hospital eye services in England, making ophthalmology one of the largest outpatient specialties.

Since 2012, recruitment to the ophthalmology training programme has been undertaken on a national level and run by the Severn Deanery on behalf of the College. This year ST3 recruitment was paused to reassess the process.

The College has been made aware of two ophthalmic units with a run of a small number of cases of fibrin membrane deposition in association with the Zeiss Lucia 611P intraocular lens.