NHS commissioners encouraged to make use of primary care

New guidance from the NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) National Eye Care Recovery and Transformation Programme has encouraged NHS commissioners to utilise services within primary care.

The document encourages the optimisation of existing primary eye care contracts, as well as taking steps to increase capacity and activity.

NHSEI calls for risk stratification to enable the clinically-appropriate transfer of patients to primary care and a collaborative approach between primary and secondary care.

A single point of access approach should be explored where appropriate, NHSEI highlighted.

The guidance calls for the development of existing urgent care services (such as MECS, CUES and PEARS) alongside the expansion of glaucoma and cataract pathways.

Optical bodies, including the AOP, welcomed the new approach in a statement.

“We welcome this guidance and its strong support for the continuation and expansion of extended primary eye care. These services are able to tackle outpatient waits, reduce the risk of avoidable blindness and address hospital capacity pressures which existed prior to COVID-19, and have increased significantly as a result of the pandemic,” the statement noted.

The guidance follows the launch of the Optometry First model for supporting sustainable eye care.