Primary Eyecare Services Partners with NHS Alliance on Report and Toolkit on Bringing Eye Care Closer to Home
22 July 2026
Primary Eyecare Services and NHS Alliance report highlights how community eye care can reduce hospital pressures and improve patient access.
Primary Eyecare Services partnered with The NHS Alliance on the ‘Delivering Hospital Eye Care Closer to Home’ programme, which resulted in a key report exploring how more eye care can be delivered within local communities. The report highlights the need to shift appropriate eye care services from hospitals into community settings to improve access for patients and support a more sustainable NHS.
Ophthalmology is the busiest outpatient speciality in secondary care and is facing increasing demand. The report identifies four key enablers needed to deliver more eye care closer to home at scale: integrated care pathways, strong clinical leadership, cross-organisational collaboration and effective system wide partnerships.
The eight-month programme also produced practical resources for local systems, including a ‘Finance Readiness Checklist’ and a ‘Service Transition Readiness Checklist’. These tools help organisations assess their readiness across key areas such as funding, governance, workforce, digital infrastructure and clinical leadership, supporting the safe transfer of appropriate care from hospitals to community settings.
The report concludes that the challenge is no longer understanding what works but implementing proven community eye care models consistently across local systems. Success will depend on strong collaboration between commissioners, hospital eye services, community providers and Local Optical Committees (LOCs).
Dharmesh Patel, Chief Executive Officer at Primary Eyecare Services said:
“The findings of the report highlight some of the fantastic work already taking place across the country, and the opportunities to build on this progress. By scaling successful models and accelerating adoption, we can support the Government and NHS ambition to deliver more care closer to home, improving access for patients while reducing pressure on hospital services.”
Read the Local Report here
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