College Advice On COVID, PCSE Contacts, Referral Pathways, Electronic Referrals, CET Webinar, FODO News

19 July 2021

We have 7 items for you today:

1. The College of Optometrists anticipate the Amber phase guidance continuing for some time.
   They have issued the following update:

   “As lockdown restrictions are in the process of being eased across the UK, there has been no indication from each UK nation’s health and government bodies of plans to step down infection prevention and control procedures (IPC) or social distancing for primary or secondary healthcare settings in the coming months. While we constantly review our COVID-19 guidance to ensure it is up to date, we anticipate the Amber phase guidance will continue for some period of time, and potentially for the rest of 2021.”

   Further information on their Amber Phase guidance can be found HERE.

   FODO have also stated that “strict adherence to IPC measures will continue in all healthcare settings after 19 July“.  Further details can be found in the FODO weekly news update, below.

2. Second Pair Vouchers, Non Tolerance GOS Vouchers and other PCSE Contact Details
   We would like to remind practitioners of the various contact details for matters relating to GOS and eGOS forms, and the PCSE more generally, as follows:

   The application for voucher towards a second pair can be found HERE and the  Non-Tolerance Application form can be downloaded HERE, Once completed, they should be emailed from an NHS email account to england.optometryeast@nhs.net . Further information and guidance can be found on the FODO website, HERE. Guidance on issuing vouchers can be found in “Making Accurate Claims in England”, HERE.

   The PCSE contact form and other ways to reach them are HERE, including how to contact the Ophthalmic Team for urgent GOS form and submission queries out of hours .
    

3. Referral Pathway Advice for East and North Herts
   Following recent requests from practitioners new to the area, we wanted to briefly summarise the referral pathways for practitioners, as follows: 

   In East & North Hertfordshire CCG area, referrals go via the GP unless it is an emergency or urgent, in which case you can refer direct to Lister in Stevenage or Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) in Harlow. Lister have a very useful “red phone” for advice and guidance. PAH have a WhatsApp group for Optoms in the West Essex/ East Hertfordshire area – please contact Essex LOC to be added to this, enquiries@essex-loc.org , if it is the region in which you are / will be working.
   
   
   For ‘out of hours’ emergency referrals, we unfortunately do not have any cover in this area so we can use local A&E departments or either Western Eye Hospital or Moorfields, both being in London. For the latter two hospitals, you must phone and discuss first with the on-duty Ophthalmologist/triaging nurse BEFORE sending the patient in – please note down who you spoke to and the time. All referrals need to be accompanied with a referral letter which can be emailed to the relevant hospital using nhs.net.
   
   
   On our Hertfordshire LOC site https://loc-net.org.uk/hertfordshire/  you will find our Referral Contact Sheet which lists each hospital eye department, relevant information, and contact details. It is printable too.
   
   
   If you are working on the border of west Essex eg Much Hadham, Bishops Stortford and Sawbridgeworth, there are practices here with a MECS service. These are supported by West Essex CCG and further information can be obtained from Essex LOC: http://essex-loc.org

4. Electronic Eyecare Referral System (EeRS)
   A brief update from the LOC Chair on the new “Eye-Electronic Referral System” being discussed for Herts & West Essex, which you may have heard about, can be found below.
5. CET Webinar – ‘Lid Lumps and Bumps’
   OCL Vision are running their next CET Webinar, ‘Lid Lumps and Bumps’ by Ms Susan Sarangapani on Thursday 29th July 2021 between 7.00 – 8.00PM. Further information and the registration form is HERE.  
6. Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Update
   Can be found HERE, including West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust application for teaching hospital status and walk-in vaccination clinics.
7. FODO News
   Is HERE, including “strict adherence to IPC measures will continue in all healthcare settings after 19 July” as mentioned above, the Health and Care Bill (England) and The Optical Benevolent Fund. 

Kind regards

Herts LOC
 

Electronic Eyecare Referral System (EeRS)

Hi all

Just a short update from some recent meetings which have taken place between Hertfordshire and Essex LOCs, Hertfordshire and West Essex CCGs, the Hospital Trusts (West Herts, East & North and Princess Alexandra), NHSE Digital and NHSE&I about the development of an electronic Eyecare Referral System (EeRS). This is a national program which is being implemented in other areas across the country. In our region, which is the East of England, there are two systems being trialed, one in Cambs and Peterborough and the other in Mid/South Essex. Currently, Herts & West Essex is one of the trickier areas to roll out EeRS as there are three hospitals who have to deal with this work.

To give you some background information, NHS and social care organisations across England have been encouraged to work together more closely to deliver more effective, joined-up and affordable services. In 2016, England was initially divided into 44 ‘Sustainability and Transformation Partnership’ areas called STPs. In some areas, a partnership is evolving to form an Integrated Care System (ICS), which is a new type of even closer collaboration. In an ICS, NHS organisations, in partnership with local councils and others, take collective responsibility for managing resources, delivering NHS standards, and improving the health of the population they serve. In May 2020, Hertfordshire and West Essex became one of 18 Integrated Care Systems across the country.

Over the past year or so, there have been various meetings involving our ICS to discuss the Covid response needed for eyecare both locally and nationally. More recently, the emphasis shifted to the Covid recovery phase and now the aim is to learn from the new ways of working that developed in response to the pandemic. One area of the eyecare pathway needing improvement is to have an Eyecare electronic Referral System. The idea will be to upload the referral via a digital system directly to a triaging centre where it can be picked up, forwarded to the most suitable hospital/department/consultant or Optometry practice thus speeding up the referral, preventing unnecessary appointments and ultimately freeing up hospital time to deal with those patients who need to be seen in a hospital setting.

Following on from the EeRS could be the introduction of eyecare pathways such as pre- and post-op cataract, MECS, glaucoma referral refinement/OHT and medical retina pathway with a possible hydroxychloroquine pathway, Paediatric eyecare pathway and Low Vision in the future. A successfully implemented EeRS would then enable a ‘shared care’ approach to some eye conditions as it will hopefully be possible to upload OCT scans, visual field data and so on from both Optometrists into hospital and hospitals back to Optometrists.

I wanted to share these current developments with you so that you can see that some progress is being made in utilising the new ways of working adopted during the pandemic. I’ll try to keep you up to date as things progress.

Best wishes, Jane