What are Retinal Diagnostic and Monitoring Services?
These services allow collaboration between primary care in opticians (also known as optometrists) and hospital eye services to allow early detection and intervention of patients suspected of having a medical retina condition or monitoring for those who have received a diagnosis that requires ongoing monitoring.
These include the following services:
- Maculopathy Referral Filtering
- Monitoring of patients who take medications such as hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for retinal complications from their long-term medical therapy
- Monitoring patients with macular oedema or stable age-related macular degeneration
During an appointment, an optometrist will carry out an assessment of the health of the eye(s).
Assessing the inside of your eye is usually done with a specialised microscope and sometimes also using diagnostic scanning devices such as an Optical Coherence Tomographer (OCT). Sometimes eyedrops are used to enlarge the pupil to get a clearer view.
Following a comprehensive diagnostics or referral filtering assessment if a retinal condition is suspected you may be referred to hospital or community clinic for further investigation. If the findings are normal, you will be discharged from the service for routine eye tests.
Following the monitoring assessment, you may be referred to hospital or community clinic for further investigation or continue to be monitored within the service.