EMERGENCY EYE CARE

Under NHS prescribing legislation, all acute eye conditions should be presented to you Optometrist under the ‘First Port of Call’ treatment directive, this means there is no longer any requirement to visit your GP for any eye or eye related conditions.

We at Mearns Opticians can, where necessary can provide you with NHS prescribed, licensed eye-related medicines direct to patients without the need to visit your GP, or hospital eye service. Our resident Optometrist, Gerry O’Hear is an approved Independent Prescriber (IP), and fully qualified to prescribe under the NHS, giving you the patient quicker access to specialist treatment.

Any acute condition that cannot be treated and managed in our practice will be referred directly to the local Hospital Eye Service for treatment under the appropriate timescale guidelines.

Using shared health service guidelines under our emergency care service, we will always inform our patients GPs of any medication prescribed and management plan administered.

Examples of conditions which we treat regularly at the practice are:

• Sudden loss of vision
• Unexplained red / painful eye
• Allergic Conjunctivitis
• Bacterial Conjunctivitis
• Viral Conjunctivitis
• Dry Eye
• Eye lash removal (trichiasis)
• Herpes Simplex Keratitis (recurring episodes of)
• Styes
• Marginal Keratitis
• Corneal abrasion
• Trauma
• Anterior Uveitis
• And many others

WHO MAY BENEFIT FROM THE SERVICE

The following groups may benefit from our Emergency Eye

• Patients with a recent/sudden onset red eye
• Patients with recent/ sudden loss of vision
• Patients with a chronic problem such as seasonal allergic conjunctivitis or dry eye
• There is a small group of patients with chronic long-term conditions such as recurrent anterior uveitis

Where the underlying condition is related to dry eye syndrome, we may recommend an assessment within our specialist Dry Eye Clinic.