Standards and guidance

Our range of high-quality guidance helps to maintain standards in the planning, practice and commissioning of patient care. Our clinical guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations across all aspect of care or of eye conditions; Concise Practice Points make recommendations for less frequent and targeted clinical situations, succinctly describing the scientific and clinical evidence alongside expert input to enhance clinician and patient decision making. Our Commissioning guidance supports eye units to develop services to meet local population needs.

Reopening and redeveloping ophthalmology services during Covid recovery – Interim guidance

This document aims to support decision making and, where possible, provide guidance on how to reopen ophthalmology services after the Covid pandemic lockdown. Its purpose is to support ophthalmic clinical leads, ophthalmic consultants, managers and directors of hospital eye services to plan the recovery phase whilst incorporating service transformation beneficial for long term sustainability of ophthalmology care.

Prioritisation of ophthalmic procedures

This guidance has been developed to aid ophthalmic services in the prioritisation of surgical procedures being carried out within their departments. It is intended to allow services to plan beyond the lockdown period into the phase of reopening of services when more medium urgency and elective care will be provided but where there is likely still to be restricted capacity and a greater need to prioritise.

Prioritisation of ophthalmic outpatient appointments

This guidance has been developed to aid ophthalmic services in the prioritisation of their outpatient capacity of their departments.

Cataract surgery guidelines for Post COVID-19 pandemic

This document provides guidance to assist re-opening of cataract services following the COVID lockdown

Use of non-contact tonometry to measure intra-ocular pressure during COVID-19

Advice was given by both The College of Optometrists and The Royal College of Ophthalmologists to avoid the use of air puff tonometry in all clinical settings. This document provides a consensus on the risks of non-contact tonometry and advises suitable usage during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Principles for the restarting of elective care services: Personal protective equipment (PPE) and Aerosol Generating Procedures (AGP) principles for ophthalmology

As we all restart our elective services and remodel them there are many challenges and new concerns as well as those which were particularly worrying during the peak of the pandemic. These pricniples provide a foundation for clinical teams to decide appropraite PPE for a breadth of ophthlamic procedures depending on the COVID risk of their pathways.

COVID-19 Urgent Eyecare Service specification (CUES)

Developed in collaboration with the NHS, RCOphth and The College of Optometrists, CUES provides commissioning specification in the management of emergency eye care in the community, ensuring that access to care in the community is managed effectively and that only high-risk patients are appropriately referred into ophthalmology eye service.

Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine Retinopathy Monitoring Guideline and Recommendations Exec Summary 2020

Hydroxychloroquine is a medicine that is effective in treating various long-term inflammatory disorders of the joints and skin.

Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine Retinopathy Monitoring Guideline: Lay Summary 2020

Hydroxychloroquine is a medicine that is effective in treating various long-term inflammatory disorders of the joints and skin.