Bridlington Hospital’s Eye Clinic celebrates 10th anniversary as it gains £140,000 to deal with increased caseloads
Staff and patients from Bridlington Hospital’s Eye Clinic recently celebrated 10 years of treating patients across the East Coast.
The clinic has been described as ‘a success story for York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’.
The clinic, which is the main intravitreal injection site on the East Coast, first opened after outgrowing its then base at Scarborough Hospital and initially started as a weekly Saturday clinic with just 30 patients.
Today, the clinic is operational for injections three days a week, seeing 80 patients a day and runs from five consulting rooms at Bridlington Hospital. It treats patients who suffer loss of central vision due to macular oedema secondary to macular degeneration, retinal vein occlusions and diabetes.
The drugs are injected into the eye to slow or stop the growth of abnormal blood vessels.
They can also improve vision in some patients and help keep patients living independently for longer.
Clinic staff are working on launching a virtual clinic to help with the climb in caseloads.
The clinic received over £140,000 from two innovative healthcare companies (Bayer AG and Roche) who together have granted vital funding to pay for specialist diagnostic cameras and rooms.
The grant allows patients to be scanned on the East Coast on the cameras whose images can be reviewed by clinicians working in York.
“It’s time to celebrate what we have achieved, and I am thrilled to see how far we have come,” said Fiona Bailey, Consultant Ophthalmologist.
As Head of Bridlington’s Intravitreal Injection Clinic, Fiona has witnessed the department grow over the past decade.
“We just couldn’t cope with the number of patients we had to treat,” said Fiona, “and we are likely to grow again as we are extremely busy.
"We have already had to open more days to deal with the increasing number of patients with factors such as an ageing population, a higher number of diabetic cases and the number of retired people who come to live on the East Coast all feeding into this.
“I am fortunate to work in a great team, many of whom combine working with us with other jobs, within both the hospital and community setting. All the team is fantastic.”