In last week’s issue, Cirta Tooth explained the process of registration for sight impaired and severe sight impairment registration (Sight impairment: To refer or not to refer? Optician 15.04.22, pages 19 to 25). This article covered a number of areas and is now the source material for an interactive CPD exercise.

Key points to consider are as follows:

  • The process of certification and then registration as sight impaired and severe sight impaired varies somewhat between the nations of the UK in terms of the initial certificate for completion as part of the registration process. Figure 1 shows the first page of the certificate of visual impairment (CVI) for England
  • Eligibility for certification is based upon specific Snellen acuity values, levels of visual field loss and, at the discretion of the ophthalmologist, the impact upon everyday living of factors such as co-morbidities and mobility concerns. Table 1 outlines the main visual criteria
  • There are specific benefits for certification as either SI and SSI (see table 2). That said, many support services and aids are available at a local level irrespective of certification status.

Figure 1: CVI for England is filled out by a consultant ophthalmologist and is copied in to the patient, the patient’s GP, the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and the local Council

Much of the article discussed the results of a small-scale survey of optometrists and their understanding of the process of registration. A majority of participants felt that they would benefit from extra training in this matter.

A link to this source material is available in the CPD area of opticianonline.net. Once you have familiarised yourself with the subject matter, you are then invited to consider the following case scenario and discuss the associated questions.

Case Scenario

A 78-year-old patient attends your clinic. She says that she was seen at the local hospital eye department about 18 months ago. Here, it was confirmed that she had ‘dry’ macular degeneration and the doctor told her that there was no treatment for this. Instead, she was told to visit her local optician. This is the first time she has done so, her visit prompted by the fact that she is now struggling with her vision which she is convinced has got worse since the hospital saw her.

She lives on her own, struggles with going out, and increasingly finds looking after herself a challenge (figure 2). However, she would rather avoid going back to the eye hospital if at all possible.

Her best corrected acuities today are as follows:

  • R: 6/36 + 2
  • L: 6/60
  • Add +4.00 (N18/N12 @ 25cm)

Consider the following:

  1. Might she be eligible for sight impairment registration?
  2. If so, would there be any benefit to her in being registered?
  3. Local to the area where you practise, what services that might be of help might she be able to access irrespective of her registration category?

Table 1: Visual criteria for SI and SSI certification


Table 2: Benefits of SI and SSI certification



Interactive CPD Instructions

  • In order to be able to log one provider-led interactive CPD point to your MyCPD account, this is what you need to do:

    •Make sure you have read the source material article to be found with this exercise in the CPD area of opticianonline.net  
    •Arrange a time to undertake a discussion on the subject with a similarly qualified registrant; another optometrist or dispensing optician.
    •Read the case scenario and questions (above) and use them as the basis for the discussion with your colleague. Note, the discussion needs to address each of the questions outlined above and must be for longer than ten minutes
    •When finished, you then need to send an email to ‘opticiancpd@markallengroup.com’ as follows;
    • Subject box should state ‘Low Vision Interactive 1’
    • Please state your name and GOC number
    • Please state the name and GOC number of the person you discussed the matter with
    • Please confirm you had read the source material
    • Please include a summary of your discussion, explaining your views and thoughts on each of the three discussion questions
    •Each submission will be read individually and, where needed, feedback will be given directly. Where the submission meets a required standard, you will receive an email confirming this which you can then use as evidence of completion allowing you to log one distance learning interactive CPD point.

    •A summary of the responses and discussions will appear in a future issue of Optician with comment from the authors.