To ask the Minister of Health whether there is to any policy for patients assessed through the Primary Eyecare Assessment and Referral Service, on whether they are still required to be on an outpatient waiting list to see an Health and Social Care Trust consultant before being added to the heath service surgery or treatment inpatient waiting list.

The Northern Ireland Primary Eyecare Assessment and Referral Service (NI PEARS) was first introduced in March 2018 and was fully commissioned at a regional level from February 2019. The NI Primary Eyecare Assessment and Referral Service (NI PEARS) provides the first point of contact for patients on the Acute Eyecare Pathway, that is, for patients who develop a sudden acute previously undiagnosed eye problem. There is appropriate regional provision across the majority of primary care optometry practices where optometrists are required to offer the patient an appointment within 48 hours of referral. Previous audit of the outcomes of NI PEARS provision evidenced that 80% of NIPEARS presentations are managed by the optometrist in practice without the need for onward referral. This safe and effective service frees capacity in both primary care GP practices and unscheduled ED and eye casualty settings with > 4,000 patients accessing the service each month. System Outcome Measure (SOM) data demonstrates that 99% of patients are appointed and managed within a 48hr window following triage.

In the scenario where referral to secondary care eye services is indicated following an NI PEARS assessment, the primary care optometrist will complete the referral and send it to the appropriate clinical sub-speciality. On receipt of the referral, HSC Trust clinical ophthalmology teams will triage the referral and determine if an out-patient appointment is necessary; this may be provided by an HSC Trust consultant or other member of the multi-disciplinary eye care team. An out-patient appointment will not always result in a recommendation for surgical intervention but, where this is indicated, a patient will then be placed on an HSC surgical waiting list. In generating a referral, the optometrist has determined that further clinical assessment and/or intervention may be required and the provision of NI PEARS does not supersede the need for the hospital eye service to decide on the next phase of a patient’s clinical care journey. At present, neither community optometrists nor GPs directly list for ophthalmology out-patient, or, in-patient clinical care in Northern Ireland.