A large part of LOCSU’s role is to support Local Optical Committees (LOCs) to develop and deliver extended primary eye care services, outside of the central GOS contract for sight testing.
Clinical Service Pathways Framework
Follow the links below to access clinical pathway diagrams and, where relevant, clinical management guidelines to support the local delivery of pathways.
- Community Minor and Urgent Eye Care Clinical Specification
- Children’s Vision (Paediatrics)
- Glaucoma Referral Filtering and Monitoring
- Healthy Living Optical Practice Framework
- Integrated Cataract (pre/post-operative)
- Integrated Dry Eye Disease
- Low Vision
- Maculopathy Referral Filtering and Monitoring
- Medical Retina Monitoring (Hydroxychloroquine)
- Naevus Pathway
- People with Learning Difficulties
If you have any questions around the pathways, please email in your query to info@locsu.co.uk
NHS England has published a competencies and qualification summary table to help local commissioners and all those involved in planning care better understand what each profession is able to do with their core competency.
Competencies and Qualification Summary Table
Continued Professional Development
Continued Professional Development (CPD) is a regulatory requirement for all qualified optometrists and dispensing opticians. CPD is designed to be much more flexible and adaptable to an optical professional’s learning needs and recognises the diversifying scopes of practice now undertaken.
For the delivery of LOCSU pathways, it is important for eye care practitioners to maintain their clinical skills in line with the scope of care they are delivering within their locally commissioned extended care services when tracking progress against their CPD requirements.
Patient Health and Care Videos
28 patient-facing videos have been written and produced by HCI in collaboration with The Royal College of Ophthalmologists, Moorfields Eye Hospital, Torbay and South Devon NHS Ophthalmology Department, the National Outpatient Transformation Programmes team, the National Eye Care Recovery and Transformation Programme, College of Optometrists, LOCSU and a number of UK charities.
These videos link into the LOCSU pathways and can be used to assist in the continuation and improvement of eye care services, supporting people to understand transformations in care pathways such as remote consultations, and management of their eye conditions, with easy to understand content that explains risk, consent, options for treatment, options for support and self-care including post-surgery. The full library can be found here.
There are a support videos for range of issues relating to cataract and glaucoma and also general and emotional support services including I have a problem with my eyes – where should I go? and Understanding ophthalmic professionals and eye care services.
Systems and Assurance Framework for Eye Health (SAFE)
LOCSU is an active member of the Clinical Council for Eye Health Commissioning (CCEHC) and has supported the development of the Systems and Assurance Framework for Eye Health (SAFE).
SAFE describes what a good eye health and care service system looks like and what is expected of it to meet population eye health needs. LOCSU’s pathways and clinical management guidelines populate the primary eye care sections of SAFE and support the delivery of SAFE in optical practice. A SAFE service system is commissioned to deliver a whole pathway of care providing a range and continuum of services that are based on risk stratification of a patient’s condition and the competencies of the professionals providing care.
Click here to access the SAFE Framework which provides tools to help commissioners in developing a more strategic and consistent approach to planning and delivering services.