The Minister for Health and Community Care announced in Fair to All, Personal to Each (2004) a new waiting time standard for patients requiring cataract surgery : the maximum wait from referral by a GP or optometrist to surgery will be 18 weeks to be implemented across the NHS in Scotland by the end of 2007.
The Improvement and Support Team in partnership with the National Waiting Times Unit has developed the Eye Care Redesign and Delivery Programme, as an integrated programme for service redesign and delivery of the waiting time standard for cataract surgery.
The vision of the programme is to improve access to assessment, diagnosis and treatment for cataract patients whilst at the same time avoiding undesirable carve out of available clinical time to the detriment of other ophthalmology patients.
The programme was launched in Edinburgh in November 2005.
A national delivery team has been established to drive forward delivery:
- Jeffrey Jay, Consultant Ophthalmologist (Chair of the delivery team and specialty advisor to the Chief Medical Officer)
- Patrick Kearns, Consultant Ophthalmologist
- Ian Ross, Chief Executive
- Donald Cameron, Optometry Scotland
- Alex Bowerman, National Waiting Times Unit