We have been informed that a number of patients are still being sent to Lancashire Teaching Hospital (LTHTR) at Chorley without prior notification of their arrival or are being advised to attend A&E for e.g. Foreign body removal without being directed to the community CUES service.
The emergency eye clinic (as is the case for Community Urgent Eyecare Service (CUES)) is not a walk in service so all patients require a referral and will be given an appointment. Please do not signpost patients to walk in to the emergency eye clinic without arranging an appointment first.
The correct procedure for referring patients to the emergency eye clinic at LTHTR is to send a referral and / or telephone the triage line. This can be done at the end of an episode of care (sight test, CUES etc.) by selecting ‘LANCASHIRE EYE CENTRE – CHORLEY AND SOUTH RIBBLE HOSPITAL CALL 01257245346‘.
It can also be done using an NHS.net email account to email a referral to eye.emergencies@lthtr.nhs.uk. While this does not remove the requirement to find a patient an appointment at another CUES practice, it can be used as a back up should no appointment be available within an appropriate time and the emergency eye clinic is used as an option of last resort.
Sending patients to A&E or the Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) is rarely useful, unless the patient presents with symptoms suggestive of a stroke or other emergency general health concern. Patients sent to A&E or UTC will usually end up referred back to the emergency eye clinic which can delay treatment and inconvenience patients.
Non-accredited practices should use the find a practice site to refer any patient presenting with symptoms suggestive of an urgent eye condition to a nearby participating CUES practice. Please ring the practice first to check for availability.
FIND A PRACTICE
A list of accredited optical practices currently providing the service is available on the Primary Eyecare Website using the ‘Find a Practice’ tool. This shows the most up to date information.
CUES can address the following presentations:
• Acute visual changes – flashes and floaters, visual distortion, sudden or transient vision loss/reduction, field loss, and diplopia.
• Ocular discomfort – painful, red, sore, sticky, watery, itchy, dry, or irritated eye(s) or eyelid(s).
• Abrasions and foreign bodies – known history of low velocity, non-penetrating, and nonchemical injury.
• Other presentations requiring urgent clinical investigation but not suitable for GOS and not appropriate for eye casualty.
CUES is not optimal for the following presentations:
• Sudden and sustained loss of vision, or vision loss with malaise
• Chemical or high velocity/penetrating eye injuries
• Post-operative complications from recent eye surgery
• Sudden onset diplopia
• Headaches with no visual symptoms
Please do get in touch if you have any questions regarding this https://lmbloc.co.uk/contact-us/
