GP or Optician

Griizelda

My two youngest children were both referred to the Eye Clinic at our local hospital via the Optician. I would definately make an appointment to see a good optician/optomologist first - if you don't know who to go to, do you have any friends/colleagues who could recommend someone? It may be that it isn't too serious, but you do need to get this checked out sooner rather than later.

Good luck and hope all goes well.

melancholly

nedmundo wrote: »

Most Eye Casualty units will only see patients on direct referral from a GP or Optometrist. I'd go to the Opticians ASAP as a 1st port of call (better equipment and more specialised), don't drive and allow plenty of time as they may want to put drops in you eyes to get a better view, before deciding on the best course of action.

Let us know what happens.

sorry, in our experience (2 hospitals, 2 trusts, 2 different people - we're just that lucky!), that's not the case - it was like standard A&E and you just walked in. if someone came into 'normal' A&E with an eye problem, that's where they'd end up anyway. on one occasion someone went to the optician first and was given no advice and only went to the eye casualty afterwards (after some nagging from me and a friend who is a doctor who immediately said eye casualty) - where they knew what was wrong very very quickly! for any medical problem with your eyes, the hospital is far more specialised and trained - it's just not what opticians deal with every day so you can't expect them to be as good as a specialist eye centre in a hospital.

nedmundo

That may be the case in your area, but there needs to be some sort of triage, so all and sundry don't pitch up with something non-urgent like allergic conjunctivitis or dry eye, wasting already stretched resources.

Opticians and to some extent GPs may not be able to diagnose and treat all eye conditions, but at least they should have an idea of what is going on and how urgently it needs to be investigated. The example you give is unfortunate, but highlights the need to go somewhere where they have an interest in eye disease and the sole purpose isn't flogging eyewear - which should hopefully be the majority of practices.

nedmundo

Soooooooooo - how did you get on? Hope it wasn't anything too serious.

SunnySusie

nedmundo wrote: »

Soooooooooo - how did you get on? Hope it wasn't anything too serious.

Hehe well I remembered I never followed up this post so thought I'd share my experience for completeness.

So I went to the high street optician and they had a look and didn't really see much initially but a second chap had a look and eventually they spotted something that didn't look quite right.

They packed me off to Moorfield eye hospital - as I work in central London this was easy to get to. They have a walk in A&E there so if anyone in London has the same prob you can definitely walk in and get seen. You don't need to see anyone else first, just walk in.

There was a wait of a few hours but time seemed to go quickly. They do an initial sight test - letters on the wall kind of thing. They check your eye pressure - this wasn't nice, they run a "thingy" over the surface of your eye. On the plus side they numb it first with an eye drop so it just feels like your looking at a light very close up. They then ran scans with state of the art instruments that mapped the insides of my eyes. Was quite interesting to see lol!!! Lucky to have access to this kind of care.

Anyway, the prognosis was good. The prob was down to some fluid collecting - rare but should clear up in time. It's much better now although not perfect. I have a follow up next year to check on progress.

It's things like that the remind me how important good health is, especially watching the stories of other patients waiting with me unfold. I'd urge anyone with similar probs to get to A&E asap.

Have to say, for all the stick the NHS gets, the fact that I could go into an eye hospital and receive expert treatment within hours is something we should all be grateful for. We are very lucky to have access to this kind of care.

A big thanks to all health professionals out there.

Stay happy xxx:D:D:D

nedmundo

Glad to hear that all's well - you did exactly the right thing.