Quality improvement in ocular oncology

The College currently makes no specific recommendations for supporting information to be provided for appraisal in ocular oncology.

The centres in the UK which provide ocular oncology services collect very detailed information on the patients that they treat. Cancer registration in England is conducted by eight regional registries, which also submit a standard data set of information to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), for the collation of national cancer incidence data. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each have one, national, cancer registry.

The multidisciplinary nature of ocular oncology means that supporting information for appraisal is likely to reflect the performance of the team as whole rather than individual performance. Nationally funded specialist services such as ocular oncology are required to provide regular detailed reports to the NHS on their activity, outcomes and patient feedback as a condition of continued funding, and it is likely that ocular oncologists will wish to draw on this data as supporting information for appraisal.

Ocular oncologists also maintain close collaboration with referring ophthalmologists. This professional relationship is beneficial to the referring ophthalmologist in terms of updating their knowledge and skills, and it also allows the possibility of shared care of patients, thereby reducing the burden of traveling to a distant ocular oncology centre.