Ophthalmology

Engage with Boards to support reduction in long waits, capacity maximisation and cross Board/ regional working

Following on site peer review meetings across Boards, a best practice report will be published highlighting ‘what good looks like’ across ophthalmic sub-specialty areas. Follow-up peer reviews are ongoing to monitor progress with the team’s initial recommendations.   

In tandem with this, the national ophthalmic workforce review, published in early 2024, highlights specific areas where the upskilling of non-medical staff within hospital eye services and across the primary/secondary care interface supports the delivery of patient care. 

Support improvements in Theatre Utilisation and Day Surgery capacity and performance

The team have been reviewing Board improvement plans, and helping Boards to identify opportunities to support additional activity.   

In addition, the team have been working in partnership with Public Health Scotland (PHS) to monitor cataract activity via anonymised surgical data.  This activity data will help to support and focus further improvement work. 

Support implementation of Once for Scotland electronic patient record (EPR) 

The National Eyecare Workstream has commissioned NES Technology and other stakeholders to support the roll out of a national ophthalmic electronic patient record (EPR) across Boards’ hospital eye services. The EPR is also enabling the delivery of the Community Glaucoma Service (CGS). To date, 120,000 patients have been on-boarded on the EPR. This work is ongoing. 

Focussing on referral management (FORM project)

The National Eyecare Workstream is working with Boards and stakeholders to reduce unwarranted variation and avoidable referrals across the cataract pathway from community optometry to the hospital eye service. This work is being extended to cover other relevant pathways