Provision for emergency ophthalmology        

FOI REFERENCE: 28082    FOI DATE: 2^nd May 2024    

I am writing to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding provision for urgent and emergency ophthalmology (eye care) services.

Does your Eye Service/A&E service offer Emergency/Casualty Eye Care by walk-in, telephone or self-referral? If so, can you please state if it is walk-in, telephone or self-referral based and can you provide activity data for each of the last 5 years (2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23)

Emergency Eye Service at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is by referral only (Doctor or Optician), via telephone/email. Walk-in, or self-referral service is not available.

Number of Adult Patients attending, in each year, in the age groups of, 18 to 24; 25 to 34; 35 to 49; 50 to 64; over 65

Adult patients referred for emergency eye care from primary care

Age group	2018/2019	2019/2020	2020/2021	2021/2022	2022/2023
18-24	349	316	261	344	360
25-34	685	698	616	696	792
35-49	1298	1115	1017	1220	1410
50-64	1765	1789	1856	2015	2082
65+	2774	3018	2895	3603	3591

Number of Adult Patients attending, in each year, split by Casualty/A&E Triage Category of 3, 4 & 5 (we have intentionally excluded Category 1 & 2 from this FOI)

Not applicable – A&E triage codes not used in these clinics

Number of Adult Patients transferred/onward referred, in each year, to the Outpatient Eye clinic for ongoing care?

Adult patients with outcomes of further outpatient appointments

2018/2019	2019/2020	2020/2021	2021/2022	2022/2023
2384	2894	3310	4128	4681