Consultant physicians working with patients - Royal College of ...

2 Specialties Medical ophthalmologyTable 1 Typical job plan of a medical ophthalmologistActivitySessionsDirect patient care 7.5Outpatient clinics – which may include: ocular inflammation clinic, neuro-ophthalmology clinic, diabetic eye diseaseclinic, medical retina clinic, AMD clinicProcedures (injection or laser)Retinal screeningAdministrationInpatient (ward rounds, referrals, MDT meetings)This may include: inpatient and day-case workNeuroradiology meetingElectrophysiology meetingOcular imaging meeting(NB: for units with a large tertiary referral cohort, there may be additional inpatient or day-case work and fewerclinics.)Supporting professional activities (SPAs)Work to maintain and improve the quality of healthcare 2.5ophthalmic physician per 263,000 population. 14 Thenumber of ophthalmic physicians needs to be balancedwith the workforce plans for ophthalmology and thecurrent plan is to expand the workforce to around100 consultant ophthalmic physicians to providespecialist medical services to ophthalmic patients.The JRCPTB is working with the Royal College ofOphthalmologists to support the specialty to expandthe number of medical ophthalmology trainingprogrammes to 16 and to provide opportunities foracademic training.9 Consultant work programme/specimenjob planThe range of activities a medical ophthalmologist wouldconduct in a typical week is reflected in Table 1. Like allspecialties, the workload can be heavy at times, withsome busy clinics, but the working times are usuallyquite predictable.10 Key points for commissioners1 Medical ophthalmology is a diverse specialty andthe needs of an individual service will depend onthe specialist interest of the ophthalmic physicianand the requirements of the local population.2 Ophthalmic physicians provide secondary andtertiary level care to patients with complexproblems, including those with ocularinflammation, neuro-ophthalmic disease, diabeticeye disease, inherited eye diseases and degenerativeconditions.3 Specialist clinics for ocular inflammation andneuro-ophthalmology require direct consultantinvolvement. With the high-demand services likeAMD and diabetic retinopathy, there is often amore supervisory role.4 Procedures performed by ophthalmic physiciansinclude retinal laser and intravitreal injections.5 Recent pharmacological developments and anageing population mean that the workload for anophthalmic physician has increased substantiallyand is likely to continue to increase.6 Medical ophthalmology is predominantlyoutpatient based but day-case and inpatientfacilities are required for a minority ofpatients.7 All ophthalmic physicians require a comprehensiveocular imaging service and access to optometrists.Those working in neuro-ophthalmology requireC○ Royal College of Physicians 2013 165