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Our ophthalmology service provides world-class care delivered by experienced and respected clinicians. Services are provided across the trust’s three hospitals, as well as at other locations.
Ophthalmologists diagnose and treat a range of problems including:
- red and painful eye
- change in vision
- double vision and squint
- eyelid problems
- neurological eye problems
- children’s eye complaints
- trauma.
The ophthalmology team consists of ophthalmologists (eye doctors), nurses and healthcare professionals such as orthoptists, optometrists and ophthalmic technicians.
The team works closely with many other medical and surgical specialties, including the emergency department, maxillofacial and ear, nose and throat teams, neurologists, endocrinologists, and paediatricians.
The service provides a multidisciplinary model of care to ensure patients receive the highest standard of care.
As well as providing expert clinical care, the service is proud of its longstanding involvement with the University College London Medical School in teaching medical students and training ophthalmic doctors, as well as many other allied healthcare professionals, within the North Thames Deanery network.
The service is also heavily involved in research, which provides up-to-date standards for patient care, providing the best outcomes.
Contact information
For appointment queries, please contact the clinical pathway managers:
Barnet Hospital
Tel: 020 8216 4959
Chase Farm Hospital
Tel: 020 8375 1278
Edgware Community Hospital
Tel: 020 7794 0500, ext 26321
Finchley Memorial Hospital
Tel: 020 7794 0500 ext 27404.
Email: rf.
North Middlesex University Hospital
Email: northmid.
Eye casualty emergency
Tel: 020 8887 3417 or 020 8887 2274
Patient pathway coordinators (general administration)
Tel: 020 8887 2216 or 020 8887 2267
Intravitreal injector coordinator
Tel: 020 8887 2466 or 020 8887 4601
Royal Free Hospital
Tel: 020 7794 0500, ext 31333, 31332, or 82141
St Pancras Hospital
Tel: 020 3758 2034
University College Hospital
Tel: 020 3456 7890
Whittington Hospital
Tel: 020 7288 3870
A comprehensive range of services are provided by the department, with access to state-of-the-art diagnostics and treatments.
These include:
- cataract surgery
- cornea and anterior segment
- glaucoma
- medical retina
- vitreoretinal (surgical retina)
- oculoplastics and adnexal
- paediatric ophthalmology
- neuro-ophthalmology
- squint (motility issues).
- emergency eye care
- low vision clinics
- optometry clinics
Royal Free Hospital
The Royal Free Hospital emergency eye care service treats patients on a referral basis. Please note: this is not a walk-in service.
Referrals
Referrals come from optometrists and GPs in the community, from Moorfields Eye Hospital’s Attend Anywhere platform, or from clinicians in the trust’s accident and emergency departments after conducting an initial triage and assessment.
Second opinions and repeat prescriptions are not provided via this service.
Opening hours
- Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
- Weekends and bank holidays (excluding 25 December), 10am to 3pm.
Outside of the above hours, the on-call doctor is available for remote consultation remotely. This is done via a clinician-to-clinician discussion, after a patient has been assessed. Advice will be given or, if a face-to-face review is required, an appropriate appointment made.
North Middlesex University Hospital
You can visit the North Middlesex University Hospital emergency eye clinic if you have an urgent eye condition or emergency only, such as:
- loss of vision, less than 24-48 hours duration
- pain in eye, less than 24-48 hours duration
- eye injury/trauma
- chemical injury to eye
- foreign body in eye
- floaters getting worse
If you do not have one of the above listed conditions, please contact us by telephone for advice before attending. Please bring your GP or optometrist referral letter with you if you are referred to the emergency eye clinic.
Referrals
All routine referrals are made via GPs using the e-Referral Service booking system.
Fast-track AMD — retinal service referral
For fast-track AMD service referrals, please download and complete this form:
Fast-track AMD — retinal service referral form
Opening hours
Eye clinics
- Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5.30pm
Eye casualty
- Monday to Thursday, 8.30am to 4pm; Friday, 8.30am to 12 noon
Locations
- clinic 2 (eye casualty reception desk)
- clinic 3 (eye clinic reception desk)
- ground floor, main hospital building: first right turn from the main entrance and just beyond the main reception desk
- day surgery unit for adults: 1st floor
- paediatric admission: 1st floor
For eye emergencies outside these hours please visit our emergency department (A&E) or access other nearby eye emergency services.
Community diagnostic centres (CDCs), previously referred to as community diagnostic hubs, are an NHS initiative aimed at building capacity for more diagnostic testing in England and relieving pressure on hospitals outpatient services. They are multi-diagnostic facilities, separate from acute hospitals and placed in local communities.
Upon arrival at the centre, a patient usually undertakes various tests within 45 minutes. This is much less than the time spent in their usual outpatient clinic.
The results are reviewed by a consultant remotely and the outcome sent to the patient. Patients will only be asked to attend a follow-up hospital visit if the consultant sees something requiring urgent or in-person attention.
The centre may be further away from home for some patients, but the reduced time spent there and the need to visit only infrequently, have proven to be an efficient model of care for patients.
For wet age-related macular generation (AMD) referrals (optometrists only):
- If a patient is suspected of having wet AMD, they must be referred urgently by their optometrist and will be seen within two weeks.
- All referrals must be sent to rf-tr.
amdurgentreferral .@nhs.net
Please use the NHS e-Referral Service for all other urgent and routine referrals, as the above email address will only deal with wet AMD referrals.
Information on emergency eye care referrals can be found elsewhere on this page.
The following websites have information and support you may find useful:
