LOCSU’s model pathways for children’s eye care services allow for the early intervention and management of poor vison in an integrated service model delivered in optical practice.
The integrated care model supports partnership working; primary care practitioners and the hospital paediatric team working together to provide care closer to home for children.
Benefits of The Pathway Include
- Early intervention for patients who have a suspected eye defect which has been identified at school screening, with a maximum waiting time of two weeks
- Increased access and choice for patients
- Increased capacity and reduced waiting times in secondary care to treat more complex patients
- Development of the role of community optometrists
- Improved communications between secondary and primary care
- Reduction in costs compared with the acute model
Supporting Pathway Documents
- Diagnostic pathway following Child Vision screening – diagram
- Diagnostic pathway following Child vision screening – guideline
- Child integrated care – pathway diagram
- Child integrated care – guideline
CCEHC Recommendations For Vision Screening Backlog
Covid-19 has caused major interruptions in education and child health services. This has meant that Child Vision Screening services have been delayed, postponed or cancelled for some of the children who started Reception Year in 2019 (and possibly some who started in 2020), resulting in a backlog of children who have not been screened.
The CCEHC has made recommendations for alternative, failsafe arrangements for these children to have their vision tested –
- CCEHC Recommendations for the Immediate Management of the Child Vision Screening Backlog in England
- Template for Letter to Parents
Skills and Training
Contact and register with WOPEC (Wales Optometry Postgraduate Education Centre).