Glaucoma Refinement

Intra-ocular pressure & visual field referral refinement for suspect glaucoma

What is this scheme for?

This is a scheme set up to refine the suspect glaucoma referrals sent in to the hospital from various opticians. Any referral sent from a non-accredited practice will be sent to us, or one of the various accredited practices across the area to refine.  It is a way of improving upon their accuracy before they are sent for more specialist assessment.

Who can access this service?

This can be accessed by anyone registered with a GP in WWL of any age, however glaucoma predominantly occurs in patients over 40 years old.

How much does it cost?

This service does not cost anything.  It is a service commissioned by the local health trust to reduce the burden on our local hospitals by reducing the unnecessary referrals in to them.

What happens with the assessment?

For refining the pressure measurement we use additional equipment, supplementary to the advanced pressure measurement we perform here, or the usual puff of air test you get elsewhere. This will involve putting some drops in your eye to get a more accurate pressure reading. We also repeat these measurements on a different day to re-confirm its accuracy.

We measure our visual fields with a specialised screener; this is the gold standard of visual field analysers and the one used in the local hospitals. This ensures we achieve optimum accuracy in its result. Any anomalies with this procedure will also be repeated.