20 April 2022

The health and care system in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin is working together to transform local eye-care and wants to hear about people’s experiences of using the current services. The aim is to provide effective eye-care services that are more joined-up so that adults and children get the best care possible when and where they need it.

Dealing with the pandemic has impacted the amount of planned care the NHS has been able to provide and estimates suggest over 10 million patients in England did not come forward for treatment when they may have needed it. People are also living for longer which is to be celebrated but means the need for certain services such as eye-care services is increasing.

This has led to record levels of demand at a time when services are also under huge pressure due to staff shortages. This is resulting in longer waits for many patients.

Barrie Reis-Seymour, Head of Transformation and System Commissioning at NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “We need to work with our staff and the people who use our services to find better and different ways of meeting current and future demand.

“We want to improve the experience of patients and staff working in eye-care services by looking at the way people access care, how they manage their condition, and how the services work together and share information.”

Claire Roberts, Clinical Lead for the Eye-care Transformation Programme, said: “It’s vital that we hear from people who have used our services so that we can capture what they think works well that we need to build into the design of the future model as well as what could be improved.

“If you, or someone you care for, have used our eye-care services, please take a few minutes to fill in our short survey.”

Visit the CCG’s website to find out more or to complete the survey online. Alternatively, people can call 074848 80804 to complete it over the phone. The survey closes on Sunday 24th April.

To ask any questions or provide feedback people can also email stwccg.eyecaretransformation@nhs.net