Cataract

So that patients can make an informed decision on their preferred surgical provider for cataract surgery,  practitioners should be able to have accurate information on current waiting times. The LOC has proactively asked the secondary care providers for this information, given that it is not readily available on the provider’s website.
 
These times are supplied by the providers as indicative and may not be a guarantee that patients will be seen exactly in that time scale. Please note that the LOC is not responsible for the accuracy of these times. If you become aware of significant and sustained discrepancies in the referral times compared to the provided information, please do let us know.
 

From January 2025 cataract surgery waiting times will be provided by a Primary Eyecare Services tool accessible  here

 

 

There are two elements to the cataract service.

  • Enhanced Direct Referral – this element allows the practitioner to provide patients with a more cost effective service with a greater number of patients being managed within the primary care setting. The other aims of the service are to;
    • reduce unnecessary referrals to the hospital eye service
    • reduce patient anxiety by allowing some element of the pre-operative counselling to take place in primary care.

The service provides for the assessment and management of patients presenting with signs and/or symptoms of cataract in either eye. A GOS sight test or a private eye examination will reveal the presence of cataract and the examining ophthalmic practitioner will discuss this with the patient. If the cataract is not presenting any significant visual or lifestyle difficulties, then they will continue to be reviewed by the ophthalmic practitioner in the normal way. If the patient does wish to be considered for surgery, then the ophthalmic practitioner must complete a cataract assessment questionnaire (CAQ). The CAQ can be downloaded from the right of this page or the home page of this website. This will provide guidance to the optometrist whether the cataract is causing sufficient issue with the patient’s vision and/or quality of life that they would benefit from discussing the possibility of cataract surgery. A score of ≥ 10 warrants discussing the possibility of referral with the patient. Borderline sub threshold (scores of 8 or 9) referrals may be made but strong clinical reason for such a referral must be made. This must be outlined in the supporting information entered into the Opera system.

 

  • Post-Operative Cataract Follow Ups – this service will allow for patients that have had successful uncomplicated cataract surgery to have their final post-op follow up in a community setting. This requires the patient to have fewer appointments after their cataract operation.

Management of the Cataract service is through the Opera system. Further information on the use of Opera for cataract services is available from PES here

 

Useful Guides

 

Cataract Post-Op Follow-up Lecture Notes

Setting up a Medisoft Account

Entering Post-Op Data on Medisoft Portal