News & Views

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.

A new document from the National Eye Care Recovery and Transformation Programme Team sets out the current courses and qualifications (including core professional skills) for registered eye health care professionals and how they relate to service capabilities that provide safe patient care.

This new scheme offers junior ophthalmology doctors from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds the opportunity to effect positive change by being a mentor.

As Chair, you will provide leadership of the Clinical Leads Forum supporting ophthalmic clinical leads in their roles. This is a great role for someone who wants to make an impact on eye care services and support fellow leads in delivering the best services possible.

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.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) has responded to a Health Education England (HEE) call for evidence to make the case for investment in the ophthalmology workforce to meet rapidly rising patient demand.

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 RCOphth believes that everyone should be treated with respect, supported and encouraged to do their best. NHS staff, at all levels, should work in an environment and culture of learning and improving to maintain high standards of patient care.

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.