A team of experts from Manchester Royal Eye Hospital (MREH) have launched a new expanded outpatient eye service at the recently opened Altrincham Hospital.
Some of the team, which consists of consultant ophthalmic surgeons, senior ophthalmic nursing staff, ophthalmic imaging, optometry and orthoptic staff, will be based permanently at the new hospital.
The development marks a major expansion of ophthalmology services for the borough as a whole.
Below: The new Altrincham Hospital on Railway Street, and (above) consultant ophthalmic surgeon Reshma Thampy sees a patient
Many patients with eye conditions who live in the Altrincham area will now be able to have their follow-up outpatient appointments locally from MREH specialists rather than having to travel into Manchester for the same care.
The new range of eye services at Altrincham Hospital include:
- Glaucoma monitoring and treatment
- Ophthalmic monitoring for diabetes patients (virtual clinic)
- Macular degeneration monitoring (virtual clinic) for patients whose vision is stable
- Botox injections for squint patients
- Primary and acute care clinics
- Neuro-ophthalmology diagnosis and treatment
- Adult and paediatric orthoptic clinics
- Optometry-led clinics
- Dedicated ophthalmic imaging
Another key feature of the expanded service is that patients who are referred by GPs or optometrists with an acute eye problem or condition can be triaged over the phone by specialist nurses and will now be given an appointment and seen with 24 hours at Altrincham Hospital, rather than having to travel to MREH.
“We are delighted to bring an expanded range of specialist eye services to people in the Altrincham area,” said Cecilia Fenerty, consultant ophthalmic surgeon at MREH.
“The new clinics offer a much more convenient and accessible way for local people to get specialist care much closer to home in a pleasant and modern hospital environment. This is an exciting development for us and we look forward to developing our new ophthalmology service at Altrincham Hospital.”
Potential patients and referrers who would prefer to attend Altrincham Hospital should simply follow the same referral process as they do now and the MREH team will look to accommodate patients as local to their home as possible.
