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Ambitions for sustainable service recovery amidst an escalating post-COVID backlog

Rod McNeil reviews plans, activity and solutions to better address the post-COVID backlog and bolster sustainable service recovery. Ophthalmology was the busiest outpatient specialty during the three years to March 2020 across the English NHS and again recorded the highest...

Advanced level practice for ophthalmic nursing

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Ophthalmic Nursing Forum (ONF) is committed to clinical excellence through advancing ophthalmic nursing practice and supporting career development. With the increasing demand for ophthalmic services, advanced and specialist practice roles are vital to increase...

Do patient demographics influence AMD clinic attendance during COVID-19 lockdown?

The authors assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adherence to scheduled clinic appointments among age-related macular degeneration patients in a clinic in North Wales. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the population, affecting economic and social wellbeing, whilst...

From novice to overnight on-calls: developing an ophthalmology bootcamp to ease the learning curve for new trainees

Introduction My first ophthalmology on-call was nine years ago and it was a fairly traumatic experience. I was an FY2 in a Welsh district general hospital and I was on my own – at least, that’s how it felt to...

Foundation Post in Ophthalmology

If you are in your final year of medicine at university, firstly congratulations on making it so far and secondly, you may be wondering how and which jobs to rank highly. If you have found yourself reading this article, then...

Competition ratios: Is the future of ophthalmology too bright?

In the UK, ophthalmology is a highly competitive speciality, attracting many medical graduates keen to pursue a career in this area. However, in recent years, the competition ratios for ophthalmology ST1 training posts have increased significantly, creating a challenging environment...

Large language models in ophthalmology

Traditional artificial intelligence (AI) models typically require large amounts of labelled data for training. For example, to develop a model capable of detecting macular pathologies on optical coherence tomography scans, thousands of scans would need to be manually labelled by...

Treating minor eye conditions in optometry practices: is this a viable model for the future?

The role of the optometrist has expanded in recent years as community eye care services have changed. With the limited scope of general ophthalmic services (GOS) regulations in most parts of the UK, the funding to support additional care has...

Providing primary eyecare services during a global pandemic: the new normal

It would be fair to say that 2020 hasn’t quite turned out to be the year that anyone predicted. Living with a global pandemic has become our reality and we are having to get used to many aspects of our...