Title : Reviewing the outcomes of ophthalmology referrals secondary to optician advice in a GP surgery
Abstract:
Background: In this GP surgery in the past, patients were seen by both a GP doctor and optician prior to an ophthalmology referral. Due to the increased workload, referrals were then sent based purely on optician advice. The project was carried out to assess whether this pathway is effective or whether patients should also be seen additionally by a GP doctor before referral.
Objectives: The primary aim of this project was to assess the effectiveness of referring patients based entirely on optician advice and whether the referral was warranted.
Methods: A dataset of 61 patients was generated using SystmOne. This included all patients who were referred to ophthalmology secondary to optician advice, from 01.10.22 → 01.10.23. Each referral result was then organised into the following categories: referred but didn’t attend appointment, seen once and discharged, seen and retained under treatment, seen and referred for surgery, lost to follow up and no information found on what happened post referral.
Results: 42/61 patients were either referred for surgery or retained under secondary care (68.9%). 14/61 patients either were discharged back to GP care after the first consultation or didn’t attend a first consultation (23.0%). 2/61 (3.3%) patients were lost to follow up and 3/61 (4.9%) patients had no information found on what happened post referral.
Conclusions: No literature was found that had done a similar study, as such there are no standards to attempt any comparison. Therefore, the GP surgery decided to stay with the current system as the numbers seem to be encouraging and imply it may not be worth booking an extra 60+ appointments a year, where there is already a vast lack of appointments. Recommendations included to provide patients with an additional copy for their appointment letter to minimise patients lost to follow up.
Keywords: SystmOne, Ophthalmology
