Review of services for people with visual impairment in Havering

Healthwatch Havering conducted a thorough review of eye services in response to concerns expressed by residents, professional staff and voluntary organisations about the service model, the facilities, the level of support and the disjointed processes that service users experience. The review found that the number of organisations involved in this chain of care contributed to the inability for care pathways to be described clearly. This may result in residents who are blind or partially sighted being without the physical and health and wellbeing support they require.

Healthwatch Havering conclude that unless there is a more comprehensive understanding of the individual parts of the entire process of care needed in eye services and how they are interconnected, organisations will only be able to address the symptoms of an inadequate service model.

The report makes 18 recommendations to a number of organisations who are involved in the care pathway including the Clinical Commissioning Group, the Barking Havering and Redbridge University Trust, the London Borough of Havering and Moorfields Eye Hospital.

The report makes note of the commitment shown by organisations to address this problem however, there are no responses to the recommendations from these organisations contained within the report.