Aim: The talk aims to discuss the roles, allied health professions and Non-Medical practitioners play in a busy Macula Service at a tertiary referral centre in northeast of England (Sunderland Eye Infirmary) and in UK (NHS).
Methods: The presentation goes through the rapid progress in the field of Retina and development of new treatment regimens. This leading to increased pressure on safe delivery of the service in public sector. Work force pressures lead to some of these traditional medical roles being taken by Allied Health Professionals like Nurses, Optometrists and Orthoptists.
Training each profession brings its own challenges. Even though nurses seem like a natural profession to take up doctor’s roles, examining an eye can be difficult, as eye examination is a tough skill and requires using a specialist equipment. On the Other hand, Optometrists are naturally good at examining the eye but need training to perform any procedures including intra-vitreal injections.
Currently similar roles are being taken up by various other science graduates including Ophthalmic Photographers and others and this lead to the development of ‘Ophthalmic Specialist Practitioner’ (OSP) role.
The talk also discusses the Ophthalmic Practitioner Training (OPT) and its structure established by Royal College of Ophthalmologists, London. Developing a multi-disciplinary team working environment can bring significant benefits to overall patient care.
Conclusion: The training, governance structure needed to develop the roles for AHP’s & Non-Medical Practitioners and effective implementation of these roles is explained.
