Reflections on sight loss - RNIB

Viewpoint
Viewpoint:
working together
How can the interface between eye clinics and secondary care be improved?
Three professionals from different disciplines in the health and social care
sectors share their views
Janet Marsden:
“Timely support is essential”
How should the interface work for people who
are attending outpatient clinics with low
vision? My ‘model of care’ comes from the
Low Vision Pathway (DH2004) and starts at
the very beginning of the low vision journey
where a patient is referred to a low vision
service. The pathway says that the referral can
be from anyone, including the patient. The
‘new’ process for notification was introduced
in 2003 and includes a low vision leaflet (LVL)
for self referral, a Referral of Vision Impaired
Patient (RVI) for hospital eye clinics to use
before a Certificate of Visual Impairment (CVI)
is required and the CVI itself.
The Royal College of Ophthalmologists
published a statement in 2007 highlighting a
significant fall in the number of patients
referred using the CVI form. The Chief Medical
Officer reflected this, also in 2007, but went
further stating that neither health nor social
services staff were using the forms correctly.
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My investigations have been informal but I’ve
found some interesting things. I spoke to a
number of nurses working in various eye
clinics, and none of them were aware of the
LVL or the RVI form, which can be filled in by
any eye health professional who feels, with
the patient, that some support is necessary.
This is an opportunity missed for linking with
social services and highlighting those patients
who have problems now and who may need
more support later.
“Information should always be a
two-way process and the
difficulties of running a busy
outpatient department are not
to be underestimated”
Not only don’t nurses know what the process
is, they seem to have little to do with it.