Retinal Conditions Health Integration Team review of 2014-15

Professor Andrew Dick and Dr
Clare Bailey, Directors of the Retinal Conditions Health Integration Team (RENOIR HIT) give an update on the HIT’s work in 2014-15.

The Retinal Outreach, Integration and Research (RENOIR) HIT
builds on Bristol Eye Hospital’s existing regional, national and international
strengths. Bristol Eye Hospital has a national profile for the delivery of high
quality and cost-effective clinical services. Expanding our services through a
modernised system using outreach clinics has allowed the NHS to treat more
people closer to home, improving patient choice and making new drugs available
via research to people who might not otherwise have access to them.

We have responded to the increase in retinal conditions, by
designing and delivering optimal and cost efficient care. Our outreach
programme provides equity of care in our community, to allow patients to be
treated closer to their home to the same standards they would expect from the
Bristol Eye Hospital. We opened a new site at South Bristol Community Hospital
in July 2013, followed by a site at a GP practice in Worle, close to Weston-Super-Mare,
in October 2014. Both of these services have received excellent feedback from
the patients using them. We have secured funding for a mobile macular unit
which will visit locations in South Gloucestershire, with clinics starting
there in late 2015.

We have developed research and NICE guideline-informed care
pathways. Initial consultation and diagnosis happens at Bristol Eye Hospital,
before patients are moved into appropriate care pathways for follow-up at one
of the outreach locations. Patients are given opportunities to participate in
research trials, whether they’re seen in the outreach locations or at Bristol
Eye Hospital, with 337 patients recruited into clinical studies in the last
year.

We have enhanced our services through the use of modern imaging
developments and IT, and extending our team’s skills. We have already
recruited, trained and extended the role of optometrists, technical staff and
nurses, leading to a more cost-effective delivery of services.