Primary Eyecare Services report details practical enablers required to bring eye care closer to home

Primary Eyecare Services has published a report that identifies the most important factors at play when bringing eye care closer to home.

The Delivering hospital eye care closer to home report highlights ‘core enablers for system scale delivery,’ as well as three examples of existing good practice.

The report, published in July, comes after eight months of research with over 100 participants in England, including commissioners, consultant ophthalmologists, optometrists, and local optical committee leads. The work was carried out in partnership with the NHS Alliance.

It is hoped that the report will emphasise the ability of community eye care to reduce hospital pressures and improve patient access to care.

Dharmesh Patel, chief executive of Primary Eyecare Services, said: “The findings of the report highlight some of the fantastic work already taking place across the country, and the opportunities to build on this progress.

“By scaling successful models and accelerating adoption, we can support the Government and NHS ambition to deliver more care closer to home, improving access for patients while reducing pressure on hospital services.”

The ‘core enablers’ for system delivery at scale are focused on workforce, finance and commissioning, estates and infrastructure, digital and technology, pathways, governance and clinical leadership, patient and public engagement, partnerships, data, and culture and leadership.

Integrated care pathways, strong clinical leadership, cross-organisational collaboration and effective system wide partnerships are required if more care is to be delivered closer to home at scale, the report emphasises.

Greater Manchester community glaucoma monitoring pathway, Moorfields Croydon community glaucoma service and the creation of an integrated digital eye care pathway in Gloucestershire were highlighted as examples of existing good practice in the report.

The barrier to successfully moving eye care into communities “is no longer knowing what good looks like, it is enabling it to happen reliably and consistently across whole systems,” the NHS Alliance said in its introduction.

A national policy briefing, emphasising the importance of data visibility, digital interoperability, aligning financial and commissioning models, standardising workforce frameworks, strengthening national messaging and ensuring policy coherence, is also available. The briefing sets out national recommendations for regulators and policy leaders.

Practical resources for local organisations were published alongside the report.

Resources including a finance readiness checklist, an implementation checklist for delivering care closer to home, and a service transition readiness checklist can be viewed online.

The report can be read in full on the NHS Alliance website.