News & Views

Read the latest RCOphth news updates and guidance here.

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News

RCOphth evidence to COVID inquiry calls for better planning, coordination and consultation in future public health emergencies

We have provided evidence to the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC), which is responding to the UK COVID-19 Inquiry on behalf of all members. RCOphth Policy Advisor David Murray summarises the key points from our response, which recommends four actions to ensure UK ophthalmology services are resilient and able to deliver sufficient patient care and training opportunities during and after the acute stage of a future pandemic.

News

GMC’s 2023 annual training survey shows progression improving for ophthalmologists in training, alongside concerns over burnout and access to independent sector

What was the experience of ophthalmologists in training in 2023, and how does this compare to previous years? Jordan Marshall, RCOphth Policy Manager and Sam Simpson, specialty trainee and Ophthalmologists in Training Group (OTG) representative, summarise the key findings from the GMC’s 2023 National Training Survey.

News

Wider Impacts of COVID-19 on Health (WICH) monitoring tool

WICH presents a range of health and wellbeing metrics in interactive plots that can be broken down to show differences between groups - for example, you can explore grocery purchasing habits by region or social class. WICH is updated monthly and may include the addition of new metrics as they become available.

News

UK COVID-19 Inquiry: draft terms of reference

The Government has published the COVID-19 inquiry draft terms of reference. The inquiry will examine, consider and report on preparations and the response to the pandemic in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, up to and including the inquiry’s formal setting-up date.

News

Multi-professional team-working - the experience and lessons from COVID-19

A new report published today reviews the role of multi-professional teams during the pandemic and considers how the members of different occupational groups came together to deliver care differently. Multi-professional team-working - the experience and lessons from COVID-19 published by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AOMRC) focuses on lessons learned about the enablers for and barriers to effective multi-professional team-working.

Blog

RCOphth responds to select committees and MPs report on Coronavirus: Lessons learned to date

A joint parliamentary select committee report published yesterday has assessed some of the key decisions the UK has taken during the pandemic and lessons that needed to be learnt. While acknowledging there were some areas where the UK performed well, such as vaccine development and rollout, the report overall is very critical of the UK approach. These criticisms include ‘a degree of groupthink’ on the initial decisions taken on lockdowns and social distancing and stopping community testing early in the pandemic being a ‘serious mistake’. The report also importantly emphasised that a lack of NHS capacity was a significant problem.