The Royal College of Ophthalmologists' Glaucoma Commissioning Guidance: Executive summary

Abstract

The Glaucoma Commissioning Guide defines a NICE compliant high-value care pathway for adults with glaucoma or at risk of glaucoma. There are over a million glaucoma-related outpatient visits in the English HES alone annually. A third of these attendances are related to OHT and suspected glaucoma, and much of this workload could be commissioned and delivered by HCPs other than ophthalmologists in the community. 'Repeat measures', 'Enhanced Case Finding' and 'Referral refinement' schemes may reduce unnecessary HES appointments, freeing up capacity for glaucoma patients at higher risk of blindness. The Commissioning Guide sets out NICE compliant recommendations for qualifications and competencies of HCPs involved in care pathways for OHT, suspected glaucoma and glaucoma. The CoO have developed a suite of higher professional qualifications in glaucoma which align to the different levels of clinical case complexity presented in the Commissioning Guide. It is anticipated that optometrists and non-optometrist professional groups will move towards gaining these or equivalent NICE compliant qualifications from accredited providers.