Inside Moorfields Eye Hospital

In September, OT sat down with three optometrists in leadership roles at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London to learn about the extended role of practitioners in the hospital setting and how the view of optometry is changing within the NHS.

As the biggest hospital optometry department in the UK, there are 180 optometrists working at Moorfields Eye Hospital, which equates to 90 full-time equivalents, optometrist and head of optometry at the hospital, Dr Vijay Anand, told OT.

Anand, who marked 20 years working at Moorfields Eye Hospital this year, shared that while 20% of the optometry workforce within the hospital works in core refraction, low vision, paediatric and medical contact lens services, “it is really the other 80% that has changed over the last 20 years or so.”

Reflecting on the work of the 80%, Anand said that their role would have traditionally been referred to as “extended role.”

However, he pointed out that now they account for the large majority of the hospital’s workforce, it is clear that they are no longer extended roles, but “they really are just our roles.”

Optometrists working in “extended” roles at Moorfields Eye Hospital will practise in clinics including glaucoma, medical retina, cataract, cornea, A&E, and urgent care. “Pretty much every service that runs within the hospital,” noted Anand.

Anand highlighted that the work undertaken by optometrists within these clinics also involves seeing outpatients, “who would have traditionally been seen by the registrars or the fellows, or the consultants.”

In recent years this has extended further still and optometrists at Moorfields Eye Hospital now also provide optometry-led clinics. Anand explained, “those stratified patients are being reviewed just in an optometry-led clinic, meaning these clinics don’t have a medical input into them.”

Anand highlighted that this method of working enables optometrists at Moorfields Eye Hospital to see,“about 1500 patients per month, who are reviewed just by optometrists coming into the hospital, that are not needing to see a doctor anymore,” he told OT.

“This is a huge amount because when you add that up across the year, it’s a big impact that we have had in reducing that necessity for them to take up those clinical spaces,” he added.

If you are passionate about patient care and you want to do more and more, that’s what hospital optometry really gives you

A rewarding role

Between Anand, who joined the hospital in 2005, Simranjit Gill, optometrist and deputy head of optometry, who started in 2009, and Yetunde Obadeyi, optometrist and joint head of contact lenses, who arrived as a pre-reg optometrist in 2008 and remained, there are over 50 years of experience in the hospital setting.

“Working at Moorfields, you learn every day. No two days are the same,” Gill told OT.

Gill shared that because optometrists at Moorfields Eye Hospital work across a range of different clinics and specialities, “there doesn’t tend to be a typical day.”

She explained: “The advantage of working [at Moorfields] is that it is a dynamic workplace… You feel like you are making a meaningful contribution on a day-to-day basis, not only within clinics.”

Obadeyi echoes Gill, sharing: “At Moorfields, you have education working side by side with research and also the clinical side… I love the variety I get from day to day working here. No two days are the same. One day I could be seeing patients, another I could be in a management meeting.”

Anand shared: “If you are passionate about patient care and you want to do more and more, that’s what hospital optometry really gives you.”

“There is always something to learn and grow from,” he added.

Around one in 20 adults work for the NHS, and there are about one million patients who get seen in the NHS every 36 hours

Leadership at Moorfields

Leading the optometry department, Anand is “very proud that when looking at the senior leadership team, it is a very diverse team and it does represent the demographics of the profession.”

Having progressed through positions at Moorfields Eye Hospital in the 19 years she has worked there, Gill told OT that the reason she considered leadership was because, “I genuinely care about making a difference.”

She shared: “That has always been a personal aim of mine. I love my clinics, I love working with patients, but also having an opportunity to be directly influential in changing the way that we provide eye care has been a personal ambition of mine.”

Gill confirmed that at Moorfields there are a number of optometrists within leadership roles due to the size of the department.

“It gives you that progression pathway to aspire to, and it shows that it’s possible to do something outside of your normal clinical work,” she added.

Having been appointed head of department in July this year, Anand discussed leadership, sharing insight into how he stives to lead, influence and develop the team.

Anand advocates “compassionate leadership,” which he describes as listening with attentiveness.

He emphasised: “The reason that is really important when you talk about compassionate leadership within the NHS, is that around one in 20 adults work for the NHS, and there are about one million patients who get seen in the NHS every 36 hours. So, if you impart that compassion to those one in 20 adults, to every member of staff that you work with, and you do that for all of the patients who you work with, it’s the knock on effect on society that you can potentially have by essentially leading that compassion out.”