News & Views

In this episode we speak with Mr. Mike Burdon, the current president of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and Mr. Bernie Chang, the incoming and newly elected president of our college.

In this episode, Aman Chandra, a consultant vitreo-retinal surgeon and the Awards and Scholarships Lead at the college spoke with Professor Mario Romano, a vitreo-retinal surgeon working in the epicentre of the European COVID19 crisis in Milan.

Emergency eye care services have seen large increases in demand over the last 10 years, with over 500,000 cases recorded in England in 2018-2019. Many common (urgent and minor) acute eye conditions, are not sight or life threatening and can be managed safely outside of the emergency care setting.

The COVID-19 response is likely to move beyond full lockdown soon, and many hospitals are examining how they can restart some services safely.

The UK has been experiencing a shortage of mitomycin 2mg, 10mg, 20mg vials for intravenous administration and 40mg for intravesical administration since late October 2019. Since the recall of Kyowa Kirin product in early November 2019 all Trusts have had to rely on unlicensed imports. Kyowa Kirin have withdrawn their marketing authorisation for Mitomycin-C and have no immediate plans to return to market with this product range.

Whilst we have shut our doors at Stephenson Way temporarily, the teams of College officers and staff are still working hard on behalf of members. Here’s some of the activities we are leading on.

RCOphth President’s latest reflection of the impact of COVID-19.

For just the one time this year, the College News - April Edition has been produced as a PDF, rather than the normal printed magazine.

In this episode we spoke with Anthony Khawaja, a Consultant Ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. We talked about the genetic basis of glaucoma, genetic testing and personalising the management of glaucoma.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists welcomes the new COVID-19 Urgent Eyecare Service specification (CUES). It provides clarity on the management of eye patients in the community.