News & Views

On 22 September, the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Dr Therese Coffey, set out the Government’s plan to improve patient experience of the NHS in England, outlining a range of measures relating to backlogs, workforce challenges, and digitisation of the NHS. RCOphth Policy Advisor David Murray summarises the key implications for NHS ophthalmology services.

Nearly 600,000 people were waiting for ophthalmology treatments in January 2022, the largest waiting list of all NHS specialities, and around 10 per cent of all those on the referral-to-treatment pathway.

The General Medical Council (GMC) is consulting on revising its Good Medical Practice guidance, which is key to appraisal and revalidation. This article explains what the implications of this are and how you can share your views.

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.

Andy Pyott carried out extensive interviews in 2020, both virtually and face to face with all the relevant stakeholders to map out the existing provision of services, barriers and good practices. 

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.

With public satisfaction in the NHS falling amid rising waiting times and staff shortages, RCOphth President Professor Bernie Chang outlines the urgent need to increase ophthalmology workforce capacity alongside investing in recovery services.