GOS Contracts, NHS East Of England Regional Team , MEH PB And Bedford Accreditation

23 May 2023

We have 3 items for you today:

1. GOS Contracts  
   Following the changes to the East of England Regional Optometry team outlined below, all queries regarding the mandatory GOS contract renewal must now be sent to hweicbhv.optical@nhs.net (it is the same team as before, just a new email address). Jane, our Chair, has recently sought clarification on the contract renewal process. She writes:

   “Historically, the GOS contracts haven’t been updated or had the details confirmed for several years so much of their information is incorrect or missing. Emails were sent out initially about a year ago by a company called Attain asking Contractors to confirm their details so that accurate, new contracts could be put in place. Currently, lots of contracts have still not been updated.

   During the last 6 months, the East of England regional NHS optometry team have been trying to contact each Contractor by phone but with minimal success, so they have resent the information several times, but responses have been very slow.

   The process should be as follows:
   • Contract sent out by optometry team to Contractor for confirmation of all details
   • Contractor signs as accurate once any amendments have been made. The email address confirmed by the Contractor when returning the Contract will be the one they record as the best to use if communicating with the practice in future
   • Contract is returned to NHSE for signing off by the East Region Director of Commissioning
   • Updated contract is then sent back to the Contractor as a ‘final copy’ for them to keep
   • The Ophthalmic List will also get updated with the information from the contract including the contact email used in the Contract (currently, the Ophthalmic List is full of inaccuracies and outdated info).

   The new contract will be sent from the new NHSE EofE email address which is: hweicbhv.optical@nhs.net
   Please can Contractors check their Junk mail for anything relevant from the new or old email address “.

   All GOS Contractors who have not yet received their countersigned and reissued contract should email NHS EofE at hweicbhv.optical@nhs.net (including your ODS code) as soon as possible as your new contract should have been in place by 1^st April 2023.
    

2. Changes to NHS East of England Regional Team 
   Further to the above, Jane (our Chair) also writes:
   “I had a very useful meeting this week with two members of the East of England regional NHS optometry team. They explained to me that their small team was now employed by Herts and west Essex ICB but were still responsible for all the ICBs in the East of England region, just as before.
   
   
   They did send out a generic “welcome” letter explaining the above via the Gateway on 17^th Feb 2023 but some ICBs have also sent out their own version, both are attached HERE and HERE. They also explained that the generic email address we used to use is now no longer in use (england.optometryeast@nhs.net) and there is an “Out of Office” asking you to redirect your emails to hweicbhv.optical@nhs.net 
   However, this will still go to the same team as before. This address should also be used when applying for GOS voucher second pairs.
3. Moorfields at Potters Bar and Bedford Shared Care Cataract Scheme Accreditation
   As you may know already, Moorfields Eye Hospital has an outreach at both Potters Bar Community hospital and at Bedford Hospital South Wing. They both run a Shared Care Cataract Scheme for uncomplicated cataract patients for which you need to be accredited in order to refer your patients to them directly.

   The details of both are found below, together with the accreditation dates and contact information.

   Here are the details for Potters Bar, sent to us by the Principal Optometrist, Janice Oster:
   “Moorfields Eye Hospital has an outreach at Potters Bar Community Hospital which have been running a Shared Care Cataract Scheme for uncomplicated cataract patients for several years. In order to become accredited, you need to be qualified for more than 2 years, work regularly in one practice (not a locum) and be comfortable using the Volk indirect ophthalmoscope.  Training would be provided which involves attending a face to face session at the hospital and attendance to the annual re-accreditation meeting.
    
   If you would like to know more about the scheme and how to become accredited, please contact Janice Oster, Principal Optometrist at Potters Bar on the following email: j.oster@nhs.net
    
   The next re-accreditation meeting, to take place remotely using Zoom, is on Monday 22^nd  May at 7.30pm. Please email Janice for the zoom link (so that she will know who is attending). Points will not be applied for as practitioners can register the session as self-directed CPD”. 

   Here are the details we have received for Bedford Hospital South Wing:
   “We plan on running a combined session to include a cataract update and case discussions on anterior segment conditions on Tuesday 25^th April at 1830 (food from 1800), in the Learning and Development Centre (opposite A and E) at Bedford Hospital South Wing. We would love to see as many of you as possible.
    
   Thank you to all who have responded to the previous (rescheduled) event invitation. For catering purposes, please could you register again via this link:
    
   https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/community-optometrist-cataract-pathway-2023-moorfields-bedford-tickets-556532863777
    
   If you have any food allergies or intolerances, please advise Rachel Thomas, Principal Optometrist, by email in advance of the event: Rachel.Thomas@bedfordhospital.nhs.net
    
   If you have already attended an event last year at Luton and Dunstable, Potters Bar or Addenbrookes, then you do not need to attend this session (but are still very welcome to).”
    
   The following information has been taken from the Bedfordshire Hospital’s NHS site:
   “We now also operate a Shared Pathway Cataract Scheme whereby patients are reviewed and given detail on surgery by their local optometrists. The optometrists then ask us to put the patient on the waiting list for their cataract surgery and we offer a nurse pre-operative assessment one month prior to the surgery date. This has recently been introduced to try and make the patient pathway in this service smoother.”

Kind regards

Herts LOC