People’s sight matters

Johanna Moss, director of strategy and business development, blogs about our new strategy, which is based on the core belief 'people's sight matters'.

Left to right: Andrew Dick, director of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology; Johanna Moss, director of strategy and business development; David Probert, chief executive at Moorfields Eye Hospital.

Our sight is a critically important sense. Yet sight loss is an increasing reality for many people - every five seconds someone in the world goes blind. It is estimated that by 2050 there will be four million people in the UK living with sight loss. The ageing population is adding to this challenge, resulting in greater and more complex demand for eye services as one in five people over the age of 75 live with sight loss.

To respond to these changes in the world around us, we have been working with our research partner, the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, to refresh our strategy for the next five years. Throughout the process we have sought input to test our ideas and conclusions. We have heard from over 800 people including patients, staff and a range of external stakeholders who have shared their views about what our strategy should be.

Following all of this feedback, this week we are launching our 2017-2022 strategy. For the first time this brings together all aspects of our work across clinical care, research and education and applies to our NHS and private services, both in the UK and internationally.

The strategy sets out our core belief which is ‘people’s sight matters’ and a new organisational purpose to ‘work together to discover, develop and deliver the best eye care’. The strategy also outlines eight objectives which includes an exciting new objective to collaborate to shape national policy such as clinical and professional standards that impact our patients, staff and services. You can watch a short video to hear more what the strategy includes and another video to understand how we developed it.

I would like to thank everyone who got involved in developing our strategy over the last year. Your input has helped to make our new strategy relevant and influenced our decision to focus on discovery and innovation, with patients at the centre of all we do.

We look forward to working with our partners over the next five years to discover, develop and deliver the best eye care for our patients.

- Johanna Moss, director of strategy and business development.

Last updated: 13th July 2017