New ‘Out Of Hours’ Pathway For South & West Herts Patients Only
26 June 2023
New ‘Out of Hours’ pathway for South & West Herts patients
with sight or life threatening eye emergencies
If you have a patient in the South and West Herts area with a sight or life threatening eye emergency, and it is after 3pm Mon-Fri, or anytime at the weekend, you can now send your patient (with a referral letter) to Watford A&E, Watford Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC), or Hemel Hempstead Urgent Treatment Centre, where the following process will apply:
- On arrival, they will be triaged, in order to have the px seen swiftly by the Emergency Department (ED) Clinician when necessary.
- Most ophthalmic patients attending Watford A&E or the UTCs will be managed by the ED clinicians, with follow up arranged locally by them, in the Monday-Friday urgent eye clinic (UEC) service offered by the West Herts Ophthalmology department at Watford.
- Any patient attending Watford A&E or the UTCs after 5pm or at weekends, with a time sensitive, sight or life-threatening emergency, as assessed by the ED clinician, such as:-
– sudden total visual loss <4 hrs duration –
– post- operative or post intravitreal injection with severe pain, redness, loss of vision
– chemical injury
– acute angle closure glaucoma
– severe penetrating ocular trauma
will trigger a prompt discussion between the ED clinician and the on-call eye casualty doctor at the Western Eye Hospital (WEH). The on-call eye casualty doctor at WEH will advise on where the patient is to be sent or give advice on treatment and next follow up.
There is no change to the procedure for referring in your urgent/emergencies to Watford Eye Clinic during their normal operating hours. Please email as normal to: westherts.eyeclinic@nhs.net
Please be aware that patients will be triaged Monday-Friday, same day, if received prior to 3pm, otherwise it will be the next working day. Patients will then be contacted by the Urgent Eye Clinic clerk within 24 hours of receipt of referral. If the patient is not contacted within 24 hours, he/she should please contact the eye clinic on 01923 436205. Do not send the patient to Watford Eye Clinic as it is referral only.
Any queries on these Out of Hours arrangements for South and West should be directed to us at admin@HertsLOC.org.uk in the first instance, please.
Herts LOC would like to thank the Ms Stacey Strong (Clinical Lead for Ophthalmology, West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust) for her perseverance in getting this service organised for the benefit of all patients in South & West Herts.
Kind regards
Jane Bunker
Chair
Herts LOC
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