NHS North Kirklees Low Vision Aid Service AQP

NHS North Kirklees CCG is procuring a Low Vision Aid Service for the population of the North Kirklees CCG area using the Any Qualified Provider (AQP) route.

Ophthalmology and optometry services are provided in the North Kirklees in both secondary and primary care by multi-skilled teams.

As the population ages, the incidence, prevalence and burden of eye disease is set to increase and with many eye diseases chronic in nature this means life-long management. As diagnostic tests become more sophisticated and easier to administer and with the development of new treatments demand for eye care services is increasing.

Current changes in health service provision, predicated by reorganisation and the need for efficiencies and service re-design, are such that certain services and specialties will see major change in the delivery of care. Ophthalmology is a specialty which is suitable for the relocation of a large proportion of activity from secondary to primary and community care. This is aligned to the national UK Vision Strategy and patients. Strategically it fits with the care at or closer to home agenda for North Kirklees CCG to provide care in settings more convenient and accessible to patients.

Indirectly, robust optometry services can help support the National Service Framework for Older People, through falls prevention and preventing admissions to care homes.

A practical definition of Low Vision for referral to Low Vision Clinic (from Low Vision – the Essential Gide for Ophthalmologists by Anne Sinclair & Barbara Ryan) is:

• “A person with low vision is one who has an impairment of visual function for whom full remediation is not possible by conventional spectacles, contact lenses or medical intervention and which causes restriction in that person’s everyday life. This definition includes, but is not limited to, those who are registered as Severely Sight Impaired/Blind or Sight Impaired/Partially Sighted.”