Provision of Eyecare electronic Referral System (EeRS) to NHS England Midlands Region

A rapid review of referral processes, systems and forms across the Midlands Region identified that a variety of processes exist in each ICS area with varying degrees of manual and computer integration and clinical triage (this may be in primary or secondary care depending on where commissioned) and depending on the type of service.

Across the Midlands Region, a range of referral administration and referral management practices are in place for eyecare services. These are mixture of legacy systems, as well as provider managed processes.

Ophthalmology services in secondary care face enormous challenges with current workload. This is due to an ageing population, enhanced technology enabling more treatments and existing backlogs being made worse due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Ophthalmology currently has the highest number of outpatient appointments (including follow up appointments and referrals for management of long-term conditions) for any speciality. At present we know that waiting times vary across the various eyecare services, also, that the quality of referrals are variable resulting in inconsistent acceptances of cases and therefore a difference in access to services.