Bringing Eye Care Closer to Home: A New Partnership to Transform Ophthalmology Services
8 October 2025
Primary Eyecare Services, in partnership with the NHS Confederation and the Q Community, is proud to announce a new improvement programme aimed at shifting hospital-based ophthalmology services into community settings across England.
Why This Matters
Ophthalmology is currently the busiest outpatient specialty in the NHS (Healthwatch, 2025), with long waiting times for diagnosis and treatment of conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetic eye disease. These delays can have serious consequences for patients, including irreversible sight loss and diminished quality of life.
The challenge is clear, how can we deliver specialist eye care closer to home, reduce waiting times and improve patient experience.
The Programme
Launching in November 2025, this 8-month initiative will support to six multidisciplinary teams across England to design and implement local transition plans for community-based ophthalmology care. Each team will focus on a specific sub-specialty and receive six structured virtual learning sessions, tailored coaching and expert input and support to move from planning to implementation.
Applications are open from 8th October to 30th October 2025.
If you’d like to be part of this transformative program, apply here.
Voice from the Partnership
Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, emphasised the urgency of moving from theory to practice:
“Much has been said about the left-shift and moving care closer to home… Those that can do this successfully will not only make a difference to patients within their own areas but will serve as part of the vanguard for the change that we need to see nationally.”
Dharmesh Patel, Chief Executive of Primary Eyecare Services, highlighted the strength of existing community optometry networks:
“Eye care and optometry services are a success story in the provision of open and accessible NHS-funded care… There is so much scope to build on this success by expanding the range of services available to include more of those normally located within hospitals.”
Jen Morgan, representing the Q Community, added:
“It is only through examining the whole system involved in providing that care that we can move from ideas to successful practice… We will together develop the strategies, operating models and culture of improvement that is vital to transform services.”
What’s Next?
This programme represents a significant step towards realising the NHS’s vision for integrated, community-based care. By empowering local teams and leveraging the expertise of trusted optometry providers, we can deliver more timely, personalised and effective eye care, right on the high street.