Patients across Forth Valley are benefiting from improved access to eye care, with new services now available in local optometry practices. 

The General Ophthalmic Services (GOS) Specialist Supplementary Service and the Community Glaucoma Service are now in place, enabling more people to receive treatment and ongoing care closer to home. These developments form part of a national programme to expand the range of eye care services available in local communities and support the delivery of the priorities set out in NHS Forth Valley’s Population Health and Care Strategy by preventing illness, reducing inequalities and delivering more care closer to home.

Through the Specialist Supplementary Service, specially qualified community optometrists are now able to treat a wider range of anterior eye conditions. These include many common allergic, infective and inflammatory eye problems, as well as removal of foreign bodies.

Optometrists providing this service are independent prescribers who have undertaken additional training and accreditation. Patients can be assessed and treated within local optometry practices, reducing the need for hospital appointments. Where a local optometrist does not provide the service, they can refer patients to one of 21 participating practices in Forth Valley.

The new Community Glaucoma Service supports patients with lower-risk glaucoma and ocular hypertension to be cared for by accredited community optometrists. Suitable patients are able to be discharged from ophthalmology services into the community, allowing them to attend appointments closer to home and at times that are more convenient. This also helps ensure hospital eye services can prioritise patients with more complex or urgent needs.

Patients who have been identified as suitable for discharge into the new service will be contacted directly by ophthalmology services with information on how to register for the service which is provide by five optometry practices across Forth Valley. They can continue to attend their usual optometrist for routine NHS eye examinations.

Details of practices offering both the Specialist Supplementary Service and the Community Glaucoma Service can be found via the Find an optician section on the NHS Inform website or on the Eye problems section of the NHS Forth Valley website.