We provide a wide range of general clinics as well specialist eye care services:
Many of our services are being provided as one-stop clinics to facilitate speedy diagnosis and treatment.
We provide urgent care for patients who self-refer to our A&E. Patients and our healthcare colleagues can telephone for advice from an experienced ophthalmic triage nurse.
How we work
We, as a multidisciplinary team, encourage and support the development of a wide range of enhanced skills for paramedical staff.
We proactively work with our primary care colleagues by providing services in local GP surgeries.
We also work very closely with colleagues in other specialties - particularly medical assessment and neurology to provide a seamless service needed by our patients.
We continue to provide care locally in a specialist eye ward with experienced ophthalmic practitioners caring for our patients. We believe that patients who require expert care for eye problems should receive it locally.
We work within all the latest NICE guidance to ensure our care is up to date, evidenced based and effective.
Our technology
We use the latest technology to ensure our patients receive the best possible care. The department recently purchased equipment to carry out Pentacam corneal topography, Macular Ocular Coherence Tomography (OCT), Heidelberg Retina Tomography (HRTIII) and Medisoft electronic patient records.
Education and training
We are proud of the ethos within the unit about education and teaching for all staff including a multidisciplinary approach to competence in new skills.
We take education seriously and provide an ophthalmic nursing course which is accredited with the Royal College of Nursing. We teach junior doctors in higher specialist training covering all ophthalmic sub-specialties including training in eye surgery and laser. In addition, we train orthoptists as well as local optometrists.
We also provide an in-house health care assistants course supported by an assistant practitioner portfolio of competence. This ensures all our staff deliver care to the best possible standard.
Achievements
We constantly strive to improve the patient experience. We were shortlisted as finalists in the Nursing Times National Awards 2008 for A&E with our newly developed ophthalmic triage tool and won the Trust Clinical Award for this development. However we are not complacent and are continually looking to improve our service.
