Doors open at NHS macular treatment centre

Somerset Foundation NHS Trust has opened a macular treatment centre in Taunton to meet rising demand for appointments and treatment.  

The macular treatment centre will provide eye injection treatment for patients with wet age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular oedema and retinal vein occlusion. 

The centre has been funded and equipped jointly by the NHS trust and global life science company Bayer, with support from the Musgrove Park Hospital League of Friends. 

Shantanu Gudsoorkar, consultant ophthalmic surgeon at the centre, said: ‘Over the last five years, there has been a growing demand for the treatment of macular conditions in Somerset, because of an increasing elderly population and better diagnostic equipment within community-based and high street opticians.