National Reports Library

Summary of report content

This report on Eye Services responds to the concerns expressed by residents, professional staff and voluntary organisations about the service model, the facilities, the level of support and, above all, the disjointed processes that service users experience. The number of organisations involved in this chain of care has surprised us. This contributes to the inability to be able to clearly describe the Care Pathways, which may result in residents who are blind or partially sighted being without the physical and health and wellbeing support they require. In this report we look at the journey patients make from attending their optician for routine eye tests and glasses, to being referred to the hospital services at Barking Havering and Redbridge University Trust (BHRUT) for more complex care, to those residents who find themselves with an eye condition that requires them to register a Certificate of Visual Impairment (CVI) with the London Borough of Havering (LBH), and the support available to help our residents and their families to adjust their lives for the long term. The report indicates that a lot more could be done to improve the experience of patients, especially the provision of an Eye Clinic Liaison Officer (ECLO) at BHRUT, which we have been advised, continues to be delayed despite the support and offer of funding from the Pocklington Trust, the Royal National Institute for Blind People and the continued lobbying of the local Sight Action Group. There is information and guidance available from the Royal College of Ophthalmologists for all hospital medical staff, comprehensive advice available for everyone from the RNIB, supportive and responsive local services from the London Borough of Havering, advice and information from CarePoint and the voluntary sector such as Sight Action and Partially Sighted Havering. Healthwatch Havering view is that, unless there is a more comprehensive understanding of the individual parts of the entire process of care needed in eye services and how they are interconnected, then we may only address the symptoms of an inadequate service model. However, the commitment shown from organisations to address this problem indicates that it is possible to achieve a more holistic model of care for our residents.

Would you like to look at: