News & Views

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.

As 240 new Fellows were welcomed to The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) today, President Bernie Chang paid tribute to their resilience in pursuing their training whilst also stepping up to care for patients and support NHS colleagues during the pandemic. 

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) has welcomed the announcement that the NHS in England will receive an extra £5.4 billion over the next six months to support its response to COVID-19 and help tackle waiting lists. This includes £1.5 billion to manage the elective surgery backlog (including £500 million capital funding), with delays to cataract surgery identified by government as a particular concern.

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.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) and The College of Optometrists are issuing interim recommendations on routine cataract care to help rapidly increase hospital capacity to see patients with urgent, complex or sight threatening disease.

The first of a series of a series of webinars about The Eye Care Digital Playbook was held on Monday 1st March. These webinars, held jointly between NHSX and The Royal College of Ophthalmologists, will look at how the eye care playbook can improve patient experience and directly help clinicians support their patients. 

We are republishing the statement from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges on the COVID-19 Vaccination and second doses.

Read a letter to the profession, signed by the four UK CMOs, Steve Powis, Nikki Kanani, Colin Melville from the GMC and Helen Stokes-Lampard on supporting doctors throughout the pandemic.

COVID-19 has led to a national lockdown in the New Year with increased infection rates putting immense pressure on frontline services which has meant the redeployment of ophthalmic staff, including ophthalmologists in training is already taking place.

As we enter into 2021, there is some light of optimism and hope at the end of what has been for many a long dark tunnel.