Eye clinic

One of my main preoccupations over the last month or two has been the Eye Clinic. I was aware of complaints about excessive waiting and the poor cramped waiting area. So I met with the lead clinician and sat in the clinic on two occasions to see what was going on. Whilst there I spoke with 30 patients and it was very apparent that all is far from well. Waiting is excessively variable even for the same sequence of events and can be from 1 hour to 5 hours. No information is given to patients and often there are so many people in the clinic there are no spare seats. Four of the patients had bad experiences with missing notes.

I have written a report and had a very constructive meeting with the Chief Executive and his senior staff. I also copied the report to the other governors who are now also seeking a resolution of the problems.

In essence the hospital recognises the problems and is determined to do something about them including

Ø Making more waiting space for the clinic;

Ø Implementing the computerised Clinic Manager as in other OP clinics which will provide overhead screens with information on clinic progress of patients;

Ø Reviewing the question of missing notes;

Ø Employing more clinical staff.

Already a new member of staff has been appointed to improve the flow of patients through the clinic and I hear she has had a very favourable impact.

The hospital is documenting a timetabled plan which it will soon share with me and the governors. They have also indicated they will produce a note on all of this so that patients can know what is going on.

So far so good but realising this all will take a bit of time.