Urgent and Emergency Eyecare Activity – Repeat Survey
29 July 2020
Optometry is playing a cru
cial role in keeping people safe whilst continuing to deliver essential, urgent and emergency eye care throughout England.
Commissioned separately to essential GOS, urgent and emergency care is delivered through extended primary care provision, such as MECS or CUES – the new COVID-19 Urgent eye care service commissioned specifically to ensure people have access to urgent care throughout the pandemic.
We are aware that in some areas there still isn’t an urgent eyecare service commissioned, despite this practices are often providing urgent care to support their patients and we are keen to record the impact of this work.
A survey of urgent and emergency care was undertaken during the first week of June and the responses covered over 4,500 consultations. Results from the survey showed the extent of non-commissioned activity that is being delivered and data was shared with LOCs at a local level together with the national overview. There have been a number of new CUES services commissioned and so we are repeating the survey to measure the difference that these are making.
The survey should be completed from Monday 10 August and detail the amount of urgent eyecare activity that has taken place during week commencing Monday 3 August (Monday 3 – Sunday 9 August inclusive).
We will be collating the data to show the activity across England, particularly in areas where an urgent eyecare service isn’t commissioned and comparing it with the data collected in the previous survey. This will be shared with LOCs to include in their conversations with commissioners to demonstrate the need that exists.
This is an important time to record our activities and demonstrate the value of Optometry’s contribution during the pandemic crisis.
Please complete the form below reporting your total urgent and emergency eyecare activity during week commencing Monday 3 August.
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