Glaucoma referral refinement

james-bontoft-optometrist-eye-drops-male

Intra-ocular pressure & visual field referral refinement for suspect glaucoma

What is this scheme for?

This is a scheme set up to refine the suspect glaucoma referrals sent in to the hospital from various opticians. Any referral sent from a non-accredited practice will be sent to us, or one of the various accredited practices across East Lancashire, to refine.  It is a way of improving upon their accuracy before they are sent for more specialist assessment.

Who can access this service?

This can be accessed by anyone registered with a GP in East Lancashire of any age, however glaucoma predominantly occurs in patients over 40 years old.

How much does it cost?

This service does not cost anything.  It is a service commissioned by the local health trust to reduce the burden on our local hospitals by reducing the unnecessary referrals in to them.

What happens with the assessment?

For refining the pressure measurement we use additional equipment, supplementary to the advanced I-care pressure measurement we perform here, or the usual puff of air test you get elsewhere. This will involve putting some drops in your eye to get a more accurate pressure reading. We also repeat these measurements on a different day to re-confirm its accuracy.

We measure our visual fields with a Humphrey visual field machine; this is the gold standard of visual field analysers and the one used in the local hospitals. This ensures we achieve optimum accuracy in its result. Any anomalies with this procedure will also be repeated.

Additional services

We also offer additional services to further improve our glaucoma referrals including our new revolutionary 3D OCT scan, as well as offering corneal thickness measurements should the eye pressures remain high.  Additional fees will apply for these services.