Read the latest RCOphth news updates and guidance here.
In a recent interview with BBC Wales, Gwyn Williams warned that a ‘tide of avoidable blindness’ could sweep Wales if eye care services are not reformed. He went on to say that waits for key treatments were ‘the biggest they've ever been’.
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.
In this episode we have a conversation with Professor Gordon Dutton about Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) and Functional Visual Loss. Professor Dutton provides a step by step guide to managing patients with CVI and provides some invaluable pearls of wisdom for approaching patients with suspected functional visual deficits.
In this episode we speak with Samantha Hunt, an Ophthalmology registrar who works at the Bristol Eye Hospital. We discuss the topic of regional funding variations in Ophthalmology and hear about her paper which investigated the variations in policy from CCGs across the country with regards to how they fund oculoplastic procedures.
The NHS Long Term Plan set out NHS England and NHS Improvement’s ambition to transform outpatient appointments.
With the pandemic continuing to affect the way primary and secondary eye care services are provided for patients in England, The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) and The College of Optometrists have developed a joint vision to support our workforce and the commissioning of safe and sustainable eye care services that meet the needs of all patients, improving patient care and outcomes during and beyond the pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected the provision of eye care in primary and secondary care. Measures currently in place to protect people from acquiring the infection will undoubtedly lead to vision loss that, in normal circumstances, would have been preventable.
The Association of Optometrists (AOP), The College of Optometrists and The Royal College of Ophthalmologists have joined forces to issue a statement outlining steps to tackle increasing pressure on hospital eye departments in England.
