NICE To Take On Board The Views Of Society For Clinical Ophthalmology Members, UK

Main Category: Eye Health / Blindness
Article Date: 04 May 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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The Society for Clinical Ophthalmology (SCO) has announced that it is to become a stakeholder for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

NICE is an independent organisation that provides clinical guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention and treatment of ill health on behalf of the UK Department of Health. Its official geographical scope is limited to England and Wales, but NICE recommendations tend to inform regulatory bodies and contribute to standards on an international scale.

NICE has an established process whereby stakeholder organisations are encouraged to register their interest soon after a new guideline topic is published. Eligible organisations include national patient and carer organisations that represent the interests of people whose care is covered by the guideline, and those representing the healthcare professionals who provide the services described in the guideline. The SCO fulfils both these criteria for eligibility.

An online discussion between SCO members following the recent publication of NICE's glaucoma guideline (clinical guideline 85) highlights the role the SCO can play in providing expert feedback to NICE on its eye care guidelines.

SCO members were prompted to speak out after the Society published a review of the recent NICE guidance: Glaucoma: Diagnosis and management of chronic open angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension. While the guidance was generally well received, and praised for their "depth and scope" by SCO President, Mr Scott Fraser (Sunderland Eye Hospital, UK), some members expressed concerns over the feasibility of the referral recommendations.

The guidance recommends that all patients whose intraocular pressure (IOP) is measured by their by their optician to be 21mgHg or higher should be referred to an ophthalmologist for further investigation. Yet optometrists argue that referring every patient who meets this IOP criteria would see hospital clinics swamped. The discussions were picked up by NICE and have since been fed back to their development group.

In addition to its new role as stakeholder, the SCO has agreed to notify NICE of new developments in eye care, or issues raised by its memberships that may highlight topics for future appraisal and those requiring new or supplementary guidelines.

The SCO is encouraging UK eye care practitioners to join the NICE guideline debate by registering free-of-charge through the Society website and submitting their thoughts.

Source
Society for Clinical Ophthalmology
http://www.clinical-ophthalmology.com

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