A new partnership will help support healthcare services as they move ophthalmology care from hospital to communities from November 2025.
The programme will assist neighbourhood, acute and integrated care services (ICS) across England in planning and creating the infrastructure and processes to move eye care further into communities by July 2026.
The partnership is a collaboration between Primary Eyecare Services, the NHS Confederation, and Q Community.
The organisations will support services as they develop the means to diagnose, treat and manage eye conditions including cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic eye disease, and eye infections, closer to where patients live.
The programme of support is expected to last eight months. During that time, teams will focus on specific sub-specialties of ophthalmology, with the aim of designing a local transition plan for providing ophthalmology services closer to home.
Some of the teams tasked with helping to develop the transition plan are expected to move forward into the implementation stage.
Dharmesh Patel, chief executive of Primary Eyecare Services, called optometry services “a success story in the provision of open and accessible NHS-funded care.”
“We are all familiar with how readily services are accessible through trusted opticians on our local High Streets, from small independent practices to national chains. Many of these services are highly specialised and already closely inform the diagnosis and management of serious conditions,” Patel said.
He added: “There is so much scope to build on this success by expanding the range of services available to include more of those normally located within hospitals.
“As members of the NHS Confederation through the Primary Care Network, we are delighted to be selected as an expert partner for this programme, using our expertise to bring together and support teams to design solutions for how this can be done in practice.”
A blueprint for national change
The move comes as ophthalmology remains one of the busiest outpatient specialties in the NHS, and in the context of the Government’s ‘three shifts’ for healthcare – one of which is to move care from hospital to community.
It is hoped that the work will lead to reduced waiting times and improved access to eye care for patients.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, noted: “Much has been said about the left-shift and moving care closer to home, and the benefits are universally acknowledged.
“But for the NHS to be fit for the future, we now have to move from theory to practice. Those that can do this successfully will not only make a difference to patients within their own areas, but will serve as part of the vanguard for the change that we need to see nationally.”
Taylor added: “I am proud that the NHS Confederation and our partners, Primary Eyecare Services, are taking the lead on supporting members to make that shift a reality through this new programme of work.”
Dr Peter Hampson, clinical and policy director at the AOP, also welcomed the move.
“The government has been clear that transforming the NHS means moving care closer to where patients live,” Hampson said.
“This piece of work will help to further highlight what is possible and why, when we think about eye care, optometry should be the first port of call.”
Applications for teams to join the programme are open until 30 October 2025. More details can be found on the NHS Confederation website.
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