How eye care went digital in East Glos

The award-winning East Gloucestershire NHS TrustÕs diabetic eye screening had its origins in 1996, when the countyÕs health officials held an audit day.
Associate specialist in ophthalmology Dr Peter Scanlon, who is involved in the service, said: ÔEye care was one aspect of diabetes care we looked at, and we found there was a significant number of people who hadnÕt had an eye examination within the previous 15 months. The variation of care was large across the county, because we had an ad hoc service.
ÔThere were some areas where diabetic patients got very good eye care, and other areas where it was not. The trust decided to introduce a rational screening service, and I visited several services around the country. Although I was most impressed with ExeterÕs, which used Polaroid photography, IÕd been involved in using digital images early on and decided to use that route. We were the first service in the country to get a networked digital screening service. We were the first one to download them and network the images throughout the hospital and produce electronic grading reports.Õ
Dr Scanlon, a former president of the BCLA, commented that the LOC for the area had been supportive of this and the trustÕs cataract scheme.
ÔWe have extremely good relationships with our LOC,Õ he said. ÔWe were the first area of the country where we had payments for direct referrals for cataracts with our optometrists and we are working with them for glaucoma screening on a co-operative basis.
ÔAll our optometric services have been set up with the help and co-operation of the LOC.Õ
Dr Scanlon has a web-based digital image library, with 1,600 retinal images, available to the profession at www.cgeye.org .