Service Outline
Welcome to the Ophalmology service. We specialise in ocular motility problems (squints & lazy eyes) which involves testing, treating and monitoring children and adults. We work as part of a wider multidisciplinary team within the Eye Centre, schools, Community Screening clinics and The Den.
We work to test children’s sight, look at eye movement and check how well they eyes work together. We also check for a squint, which is when the eyes are positioned wrongly, resulting in reduced vision in the squinting eye.
We use different tests for different age groups and abilities. These will usually seem more like games to children. We usually find the children enjoy the tests and use small toys and pencil tops as part of this process.
We often work alongside an Optician (sometimes called an Optometrist) and the Ophthalmologist, who is a doctor based in the hospital that assesses and treats eye defects and diseases.
Treatment may involve wearing glasses and sometimes patching treatment (with nice colourful eye patches). Very occasionally eye surgery may be discussed as a possible treatment, to re-align eyes.
The Ophthalmology service accepts written referrals from any service for children and young people, including GP’s, Paediatricians and the Orthoptist visiting schools.
Once a referral has been received and accepted, an appointment is made with the Paediatric Ophthalmology Service (Children’s eye service at the hospital). We do have one Out-reach Clinic at Whitworth, twice a month.
- All professionally qualified staff are registered and regulated by the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) www.hpc-uk.org
- British and Irish Orthoptic Society (BIOS) To be eligible, the individual must have successfully completed a Degree Qualification through a University www.orthoptics.org.uk
- Each member of the team is checked through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) before they can be employed. All professionals who work with children must be DBS checked, as part of Safeguarding Children.