Please share these communications with everyone involved in providing these services within the practice.
As of Thursday 21st March, the way that diagnosed conditions are selected in the MECS, CES and GOS 18 modules will change.
The ability to search the whole SNOMED catalogue will be removed, as will the option to not select any diagnosis. Diagnosis (or tentative diagnosis) will be selected from a pre-defined list of 190 conditions, each linked to an entry in the SNOMED catalogue.
This change is intended to make conditions easier to find for practitioners, improve the quality of information on referrals and GP reports and provide quality and consistency of recording for audit and reporting.
The new diagnoses lists will be available on the Help Centre shortly (in MECS, CES and GOS 18 sections) and are also attached below. Two lists are provided; one with all conditions in alphabetical order and one with conditions grouped by anatomical structure.
Outcomes by Exception
There are a number of outcomes that have been included for completeness despite not, strictly speaking, being diagnoses:
- No pathology identified
- Photopsia (flashes)
- Unexplained visual loss
We expect that these outcomes will be used rarely; please make a tentative diagnosis wherever possible (see FAQs below).
FAQs
What if I’m unsure or not confident of the diagnosis?
Please select your tentative or working diagnosis. You can add further detail and specify that the diagnosis is tentative within the free text section of the referral.
How did you decide which conditions to include?
We aimed to cover every condition that had been used at least ten times over a year of MECS and CUES episodes. A panel of experienced optometrists discussed and agreed the final list and terminology used.
What if I can’t find the condition I want?
This list has been developed with extensive research into the conditions diagnosed within our services using a working group of experienced optometrists. It is designed to cover the vast majority of conditions that are likely to be seen in primary care optometry.
The new diagnoses lists are attached and will be available on the Help Centre shortly. If, after looking at these resources, you feel the condition you require is not covered, please fill in the form here. We will review these requests periodically and make updates where required.
What if I want to use a more specific or detailed diagnostic term?
Please use the more generic term available and use the more detailed term at the top of the free text part of your referral.
Kind regards,
Primary Eyecare Services
