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No diabetic eye screening in west Belfast

Posted By magpiesn39

"No diabetic eye screening in west Belfast"

About: Diabetic Eye Screening / Rathlin Treatment Centre

(as a service user),

I have an appointment for a diabetic eye screening test. The thing is, its at the Knockbracken Health Centre on the other side of Belfast, which means at least two buses for me to get there, and at least two buses for me to get back home. One of my appointments is at 17:30 when its already dark, and I have quite a long walk from the bus stop. I like the idea of taking the car straight there, but I'm the only person in my family who drives, and if I go there and get the drops in my eyes, I can't drive home again, so that's not an option.

I was talking to a member of staff about my travel difficulties involved with my appointment, and they explained that we don't have any similar services in West Belfast. I find this astounding, that they ask this of people my age, over seventy.

There are health centres down the road, and the Royal Victoria is only a bus away, even my own GP used to do this screening at my local surgery. For what reason did they get rid of all these options, and leave me faced with such hurdles to get the tests I need? Heaven knows. 

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Responses

Response from Michael Holmes, Deputy Programme Manager, Ophthalmology, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust 3 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Michael Holmes
Deputy Programme Manager, Ophthalmology,
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 12/11/2021 at 14:23
Published on Care Opinion at 15:21

On behalf of the Diabetic Eye Screening Service I must first apologise to you for the difficulties you would have in getting to the screening location that was offered to you on the other side of the city.

I appreciate that with the dark winter nights drawing in, having to get four buses and then taking a long walk is not ideal.

Since March 2020 locations nearer to you for your eye screening such as your GP practice and the Royal Hospital had suspended routine screening activity as these locations were focusing on acute patient care.

However, I can advise you that we are working to resume the screening service in the Royal Hospital in the new year and I will ensure you are offered an appointment there. To allow me to do this please make yourself known to me. You can contact me via the DESP booking office by calling 028 9615 7600.

I should be able to offer you and other patients from the West of the city appointments in the Royal Hospital from the New Year however there are no similar plans in place to resume screening in GP practices.

If you have any further questions please get back to me.

Kind regards,

Michael

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Response from Rosemary Bowles, Ophthalmology Assistant Service Manager, Diabetic Eye Screening Programme, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust 2 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Rosemary Bowles
Ophthalmology Assistant Service Manager, Diabetic Eye Screening Programme,
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 16/08/2022 at 16:33
Published on Care Opinion at 16:43

picture of Rosemary Bowles

Dear Magpiesn39,

My name is Rosemary and I am the programme manager for the Diabetic Eye Screening service.

I wanted to come back and provide an update on our plans.

First of all I wanted to apologise for the delay that this change has taken. As you know, due to the Covid restrictions in healthcare settings, it was not possible to provide the diabetic eye screening service at the Royal Victoria Hospital or at local settings such as GP practices. Our focus was to maintain access to eye screening and keep the service going, and Knockbracken was the best option available at the time.

We had hoped to resume services in the Royal earlier this year, but pressures on the system and restrictions related to social distancing meant that it still has not been resumed. However, we are now actively working to rebuild the service and hope to be able to offer patients a screening appointment at the Royal Victoria Hospital in the near future. Please be assured that we haven’t dropped our commitment to improve our service and we are still working to be able to achieve the change we promised.

Regards

Rosemary Bowles

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