Epsom Hospital expands services with launch of new Eye Unit

Staff in the reception at the new unit in Epsom, celebrate the opening with balloons

Epsom Hospital has bolstered its range of services with the launch of a brand new eye unit. Located in the hospital’s Woodcote Wing, the unit features state-of-the-art equipment and modern fixtures and fittings throughout, increasing the trust’s capacity to provide first rate ocular health services.

The unit, which will see Epsom patients who might currently travel to Sutton, is part of a two phase move of ophthalmology services from Sutton Hospital to Epsom and St Helier Hospitals.

The Epsom unit opened its doors for the very first time with an initial welcome to younger patients attending a children’s eye clinic. The remaining Epsom clinics will be moving from Sutton over the next few weeks. Miss Jane Leitch, a consultant eye doctor, said that the unit represented a valuable addition to the services offered at the trust:

“We are extremely proud of our new eye unit and are delighted to have opened up our first clinics to such a vibrant group of younger patients. The parents were clearly impressed with the new facilities, and the children were thrilled with their new play area and to receive a sticker and a balloon on arrival.”

The Epsom eye unit will provide a wide range of ocular health services for local residents, including clinics for children’s eye, glaucoma, and cataract. The department will also run retinal clinics including diabetes and age-related macular degeneration, neurological and ocular motility disorder clinics, corneal clinics, and a visual field and orthoptic service.

The development is part of plans to move all eye care services from Sutton Hospital to Epsom and St Helier Hospitals. The second unit, which will be based at St Helier Hospital, will be open by the end of June.

Jackie Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer, said that for the next few months, the trust will continue to run eye health services from Sutton Hospital with outpatient clinics running every weekday between 8.30am and 5pm, as well as an emergency service which runs every weekday until 4.30pm:

“We are very excited about the development of both of our new eye units and we are pleased to be offering fantastic new facilities for our patients at Epsom with immediate effect and additionally from St Helier Hospital from the end of June. Both of the units will be a huge improvement in terms of the environment for our patients and will also allow care to be delivered closer to home for many patients.”