Diabetic Screening Services

The Gloucestershire Diabetic Eye Screening Programme is based at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. Their objective is to identify diabetic retinopathy before the disease becomes sight-threatening. It is a mobile screening service, which means that the 35,000+ diabetic patients in Gloucestershire are able to attend clinics at their local GP practices, hospitals and other venues across a largely rural county.

Patients can expect to have their visual acuity tested – using a LogMAR chart – followed by mydriatic eye drops to dilate their pupils. Once dilated, the patient’s retinal photographs are captured following strict, national guidelines. At this stage, patients will be shown their images whilst receiving a concise education on how diabetes affects the eye.

The images are then uploaded and studied by a team of experienced Graders. The patient can expect to receive a results letter within a few weeks. Nationally recognised quality assurance processes ensure unnecessary referrals are avoided, whilst maintaining a high sensitivity to pathology.

Any referable pathology is followed up in Ophthalmology, where timely treatment can mean sight-loss is avoided.

All those with diabetes, aged twelve years or more, should be attending Diabetic Eye Screening. Late clinics and Saturday clinics are routine, in an attempt to encourage those that find weekday clinics difficult to attend.

From October 1st 2023 the frequency of diabetic eye screening appointments has changed for people who are at lower risk of diabetic eye in disease in England. If two consecutive diabetic eye screenings find no sign of diabetic eye disease screening may now be safely performed every 2 years instead of every year following expert advice that it is safe to do so. Find more information here

Appointments can easily be booked by contacting the Gloucestershire Diabetic Eye Screening Programme administration team via email at ghn-tr.despadmin@nhs.net. For more urgent queries the telephone number is 0300 422 4419.