A series of key metrics to help NHS teams gauge performance and improvement across eye care services has been published to the Model Health System.
As the NHS works to restore activity to better than pre-COVID levels, GIRFT has worked with the National Eye Care Recovery and Transformation Programme (NECRTP) to gather data via a nationwide questionnaire for a set of national ophthalmology ‘gateway’ metrics – metrics which can be used by trusts and health systems to measure performance and benchmark against top performance.
The responses have resulted in data now published at trust level on the Model Health System (17th February 2022). System-level data will follow shortly.
Log in to access the metrics at https://model.nhs.uk/.
Trusts and systems can use the metrics to benchmark their performance against their peers in areas which can support NHS recovery – for example, comparing the percentage of new glaucoma patients undergoing referral filtering before attending hospital.
Going forwards the data will be collected and refreshed quarterly, highlighting changes in clinical pathways and trends for improvement over time.
In a message to trusts, Lydia Chang and Alison Davis, the GIRFT clinical leads for ophthalmology, and Melanie Hingorani, clinical lead of the NECRTP, said: “We look forward to being able to share best practice across the country.
“By enabling greater visibility and easier identification of unwarranted clinical variation, individual providers and systems will be able to identify the opportunities to improve patient access and care and ultimately, clinical outcomes. We are grateful for everyone’s involvement to date.”
