The ophthalmic accident and emergency department at Sutton Hospital is a type II casualty unit as defined by the Hospital Activity Team: a consultant-led single specialty accident and emergency service with designated accommodation for the reception of patients (DH 2007 SITREPS).
Monday to Friday service
The department deals with a variety of patients with a variety of ophthalmic accidents and emergencies. Doors open at 8.30am when the nursing staff will triage all patients. Senior healthcare professionals, doctors and senior nurse work from 9am-12.30pm and from 2pm-5pm.
Patients are seen in order of clinical priority. This can make waiting times difficult to predict but we attempt to see patients as promptly as possible.
We use a variety of examination techniques including checking your vision so please bring your distance/television glasses with you. You may have to have your pupils enlarged for a thorough examination which can affect your ability to focus. We therefore ask you not to drive to the department.
We will also use a machine called a slit lamp so that we have a magnified view of your eye and any problems can be identified correctly. This may include the use of local anaesthetic eye drops which last approximately 20 minutes so please do not rub your eye after the examination.
You may need to have a prescription for eye drops to take home which are supplied by our on-site chemist. If you are worried about putting in your own eye drops, just ask one of the nurses to help you to look after yourself at home.
Out of hours service
The out of hours service is provided at St George's Hospital, Tooting. A referral from a GP, optician or main A&E is required to access this service but all referrals must be made through the nursing staff on Duke Elder ward at St George's Hospital who will triage against their protocols.
We request that patients and other healthcare professionals telephone the department before arrival so that we can triage and give appropriate advice before travelling all the way to the unit. It may be sufficient to give telephone advice or redirect patients into the appropriate clinics via GP referral.
We use a triage tool that has been developed specifically by our department for a type II (office hours) accident and emergency.
This supports the department to ensure patients are seen efficiently and safely with highest priority seen first. This triage work was shortlisted as finalist in the 2008 Nursing Times Awards and was published in the Nursing Times journal (Ring and Linnell, 2008).
Team work
Our senior medical and nursing staff work as a team to provide appropriate, efficient and effective ophthalmic care with patients being seen by the most suitable healthcare professional. This may mean offering patients an approximate time to arrive but it may not necessarily be the same day according to the triage guidelines.
References
