Eye care England
Surgitrac® Instruments UK welcomes the recommendations in See the light: Improving capacity in NHS eye care in England.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eye Health and Visual Impairment¹. conducted an inquiry into the commissioning and planning of eye care services in England because of robust evidence that patients are experiencing irreversible sight loss due to capacity issues in eye care. The British Ophthalmological Surveillance Unit (BOSU) found that up to 22 people per month were experiencing permanent and severe visual loss due to health service initiated delays.
Its published findings in See the light: Improving capacity in #NHS eye care in England make several recommendations for NHS England including:
“Bring ophthalmology fully within the NHS transformation programme whilst adequately funding service redesign” and to urgently review the National Tariff for ophthalmology which currently seriously disadvantages some patients with glaucoma, wet age-related macular degeneration AMD and diabetic retinopathy who require follow up appointments and are particularly at risk of avoidable sight loss.”
Eye care England
Other recommendations for Clinical Commissioning Groups included:
“To establish separate ophthalmology contracts with NHS providers from April 2019 to ensure there is public transparency about funding invested in eye care and how this correlates to assessed need in Joint Strategic Needs Assessments. Specific contracts for ophthalmology services, (covering both elective and emergency care) – separate from block contracts – are required to enable scrutiny into the NHS funds being invested in ophthalmology and the subsequent outcomes. Contracts need to specify compliance with NICE guidance and other quality metrics to ensure cost savings do not drive down quality”
Surgitrac Instruments is a manufacturer of CE marked quality assured ophthalmic surgical instruments and packs. Its products are manufactured to internationally recognised standards, with no child or forced labor used. Surgitrac Instruments’ firmly believes that surgical instruments should be manufactured and sold for a fair price for all those involved in the product and sales chain. This ensures that the quality is not compromised, where patient safety is paramount.
¹All‑Party Parliamentary Groups are informal groups of Members of both Houses with a common interest in particular issues. The views expressed in this
report are those of the APPG.
Eye care england