News focus: NOC discusses how ophthalmologists and optometrists can collaborate

Data is a dry topic but one that optics has to take a much closer interest in if any progress is to be made on community eye services. This proved a recurring theme at the NOC which offered ophthalmology from primary care the opportunity to suggest how work could be improved with optometrists in secondary care.

Professor Carrie MacEwen, president of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, spoke on the subject of collaborative leadership for the area and spelled out the growing workload the sector had experienced in recent times.

She said 10 per cent of all people attending hospital would end up in the eye department while cataract procedures now accounted for 5 per cent of all surgery. The past 10 years had seen a 43 per cent increase in referrals while new procedures, such as Anti-VEGF injections for AMD had risen seven-fold since 2008.