Lesley Cree Opticians Appointed to Deliver New NHS Emergency Care Services

Lesley Cree Opticians based in Radcliffe on Trent is one of six local opticians’ practices chosen to be part of a new NHS pilot to deliver emergency NHS eye care treatment.

In Nottinghamshire, optometry services are funded primarily through NHS England via Primary Eyecare Services (PES), which works alongside the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and the Local Optical Committee (LOC). PES and LOC have collaborated and successfully secured funding to run the Community Urgent Eye Service (CUES) pilot in the region.

Commenting on the practice’s appointment, Lesley Cree said, “We are delighted to be one of the first opticians’ practices to be appointed to deliver treatment under the new CUES pilot. The new service will help patients with a quicker, more convenient local option to access urgent eye care treatment and hopefully avoid having to wait in hospital eye casualty departments.”

Anyone that is registered with a local GP in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire can use the CUES service, which is for people of all ages, although children under 16 years must be accompanied at their appointment by an adult.

Users will be able to make an appointment by contacting one of the provider practices who will triage symptoms and offer an initial appointment if appropriate and if they have capacity. Sometimes if no appointments are available the patient will be directed to other practices or the hospital eye service.

Symptoms that can be seen under the new service include: Sudden loss of vision, flashes and floaters, red or painful eye, distortion of vision, and foreign body. If the condition is more serious, the optometrist will organise an urgent appointment at a hospital eye clinic. Major eye conditions such as cataracts, diabetic retinopathy or glaucoma that are already being regularly monitored by an optometrists or hospital eye service, will not be covered by this service.

The six local opticians’ practices that will be part of the initial pilot are ; D I Blow Opticians in Wollaton, Bryson Bell and Clenton in Mansfield, Lesley Cree Opticians in Radcliffe on Trent, JD Opticians in Newark, and the Specsavers branches on Wheeler Gate in Nottingham and Sutton-In-Ashfield.