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Buckinghamshire LOC Latest News

NHS Knowledge and Library Services for Optometry Teams

Resources All optometry teams offering NHS-commissioned services and working directly with NHS patients have access to NHS Knowledge and Library Services, such as ebooks, journals, databases and BMJ Best Practice. These resources include specialist ophthalmology and optometry journals and resources on eye conditions. See BLMK Knowledge & Library Resources to sign up for an NHS OpenAthens account, …

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19 February 2025

New Provider for Buckinghamshire Diabetic Eye Screening Programme (DESP)

From 1st April 2025 InHealth are going to be the new provider of the NHS diabetic eye screening service for Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The current providers (Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) will continue to be responsible for screening provision until their contract ends. InHealth currently provide …

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17 February 2025

BLMK Primary Care Hypertension Conference

BLMK ICB have asked us to circulate the below information for anyone interesting in attending the conference that is taking place on 2nd April. Join us for a fantastic conference which will bring together community pharmacists, dentists, optometrists, and general practice colleagues across BLMK. The event will be hosted by Dr Vijay Nayar, GP …

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17 February 2025

OFNC Statement: Clinical Priority Codes

NHS England has published new clinical priority codes for use by GOS contractors in England. This is due to an error in the current PCSE system which NHS England commission. This means that some sight tests, which should not require an early retest code, are erroneously requiring a code to be entered to process …

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3 February 2025

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Ophthalmology Out-of-Hours service for MK

BLMK (Bedford Luton and Milton Keynes) Integrated Care Board is working to put in place an out-of-hours ophthalmology service for its system by 1st April 2025. This new service will manage the needs of Milton Keynes residents and full details will be communicated in due course. Until 31st March 2025, arrangements for urgent booked ophthalmology care are …

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10 January 2025

Cessation of Bucks Ophthalmology Out of Hours cover for MKUK / BLMK

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust (BHT) has asked us to remind practitioners that, effective from 4th November 2024, BHT and specifically Eye Casualty at Stoke Mandeville will no longer accept any urgent or out of hours referrals from Milton Keynes University Hospital (A&E or Urgent Care Services), or any other emergency / out of hours referrals …

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6 November 2024

Cataract Post-op Portal

As of June 2024, patients attending for cataract surgery at BHT will be given a printed letter to take their optometrist when attending the post-op refraction appointment. The letter will have their unique PIN code and a link to the secure Medisight Portal. This is to enable BHT to collect post-op visual acuity and refractive …

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2 July 2024

AGM 2024 Update

The nominal date and time for our AGM was 8.00 pm on 18th April. Like last year, no physical meeting was held; instead, AGM papers were posted on our website and all on our database were given the opportunity to pose questions, nominate committee members and vote for resolutions, online. Three existing committee members, Ahmed …

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10 May 2024

Buckinghamshire Community Ophthalmology Service Update

The Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust (BHT) Community Ophthalmology Service has now been running for 6 months, having taken over provision of this service from Operose Health. All patients transferred from Operose to the new BHT Community Ophthalmology Service (COS) who were due an appointment up to now have been offered a face to face appointment. …

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9 May 2024

AGM 2024

The 2024 AGM of Buckinghamshire Local Optical Committee will be at 8.00pm on the evening of 18th April. Like last year, we won’t be holding a physical meeting; instead you will have the opportunity to pose questions, nominate and vote for committee members, and vote for the resolutions, online. Papers will be posted on this …

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7 April 2024

LOCSU Latest News

OFNC Responds to the Government’s Second Phase of the Spending Review

OFNC calls for an additional £350m of funding for NHS primary eye care.

19 February 2025

OFNC Join the Primary Care Professions in Co-Hosting Parliamentary Event

OFNC met with MPs at the Future of Primary Care event held on 28 January.

4 February 2025

NOC25: Save the Date

This spring, the National Optical Conference (NOC) is back and will take place at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole on Sunday 18 and Monday 19 May 2025.