There are 33 National Clinical Programmes (NCPs) within the HSE, each one dedicated to a specific health area, one being ophthalmology. The clinical programmes are tasked with designing models of care, clinical pathways and guidelines for their speciality area.
Primary Care Eye Services Review Group Report and the National Clinical Programme for Ophthalmology Model of Eye Care. These documents, outlined below, provide a roadmap for reform of eye care services. Urgent action is required to fully resource and implement these recommendations and ensure that people are not needlessly losing valuable sight while on a waiting list to be treated. For more information please contact the advocacy department on 01 6789 004 or advocacy@fightingblindness.ie.
On June 28, 2017, the long-awaited Primary Care Eye Services Review Group Report was published. The review group carried out a comprehensive review of the current state of ophthalmology services and made a number of recommendations for the future provision of primary care eye services.
The blueprint for future service delivery outlined in the report sets out how a reformed Primary Care Eye Service will work, who will provide the services, where they will be provided and how they will be governed. The main implementation phase is intended to run from the end of 2017 until the end of 2019, with funding of €23 million required to implement the recommendations.
The National Clinical Programme for Ophthalmology Model of Eye Care was published in May 2017 by the HSE and the Irish College of Ophthalmologists (ICO). This document also makes a number of key recommendations about the delivery of ophthalmology services in Ireland, and the integration of different areas of eye care. It outlines how the delivery of eye care should evolve and advance, with reference to best international practice and how this can be implemented.