Diagnostic hubs provide new career pathway for eye care technicians

As part of its pandemic response, Moorfields Eye Hospital recruited and trained a cohort of staff with no previous NHS experience to become fully qualified eye care (ophthalmic) technicians working alongside clinical colleagues.

Diagnostic hubs at Hoxton and Brent Cross were opened as part of a pioneering project to continue to deliver safe eye care whilst dealing with the constraints of the pandemic. At all times patients are socially distanced, have far fewer interactions and spend less time indoors – reducing the chance of transmission of Covid-19 and other viruses.

Each technician underwent a 12-week training programme, learning the necessary skills to safely carry out the required eye care tests, before working with patients.

The technicians have provided a valuable service in supporting patients and the hospital’s recovery through the Covid-19 crisis.

​Joy Adesanya, Moorfields governor, and Operational lead at Brent Cross, says providing an inclusive and diverse workforce for this project has been one of its biggest successes.

“When I took on this project, it was essential to me that staff felt valued and supported, especially after the pandemic. Staff felt deflated and were burdened with the work that was yet to come with recovery.

“I wanted to make sure that we had a diverse and inclusive workforce, that ensured our staff had opportunities to be educated and further developed in their roles. We wanted to give people who didn’t have a healthcare background a chance to work in the NHS and gain certification in the process. This has been one of our biggest successes.”

From patient to ophthalmic technician

Many of the technicians recruited are patients or their family members, including Samiul Alom, who became a patient at Moorfields in 2015 following a chemical injury to his left eye.

Proud to now be part of the Moorfields team, Samiul says he wanted to give something back to the hospital.

“This role has changed my life. I want to give the same care and commitment to others as the doctors at Moorfields have given to me. This role has changed my life in a big way. I had no prior eye care experience, and this was a job I had never considered before. I am so proud of myself for training to become a fully qualified ophthalmic technician.”

Listen to Samiul’s story and find out more about his journey from patient to fully qualified ophthalmic technician.

What happens at diagnostic hubs?

At diagnostic hubs, eye care technicians take patients through a series of rapid tests, which are then reviewed by a consultant and their teams. The tests, which take 45 minutes to complete, reduce the waiting time for patients in clinics, providing a more efficient patient journey that incorporates social distancing.

Hubs at Hoxton and Brent Cross have enabled thousands of patients to be safely reviewed without having to spend hours in hospital waiting rooms. The pop-up diagnostic hub at Brent Cross, opened in a space that was previously a retail shop, enables some people to be seen closer to their homes, providing a convenient way for them to access diagnostic eye care.

The future of eye care

Designed by a team of UCL architects and scientists led by Professor Paul Foster (NIHR Biomedical Research Centre [BRC] at Moorfields and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology), the hub at Brent Cross is part of a new NIHR-supported research project aimed at enhancing the future delivery of UK and global healthcare.

On entering the hub, patients will have a series of high-tech eye tests in an environment that takes its inspiration from high-efficiency commercial settings such as automotive and aerospace manufacturing.

Patient pathways

Researchers at NIHR Moorfields BRC and UCL are using high powered computing to analyse and optimise these patient pathways and centre layout. 

In the future, these flexible and mobile 'diagnostic centres' could be deployed rapidly, including during a future pandemic and the recovery from it, or used for monitoring early phase trial participants. They could be also applied to any healthcare specialty, such as cancer and cardiac screening.

Other community-based diagnostic hubs have been developed by Moorfields and have been included in NHS England and Improvement’s National Eye Care Recovery and Transformation programme.

Project lead, Professor Paul Foster, NIHR Moorfields BRC, commented: “This important innovative eye clinic, builds on the decade of research that led to the earlier Moorfields’ diagnostic hubs.

“Through rigorous research, patient feedback and expert evaluation, we aim to provide data on how to create outpatient diagnostic hubs that are user-friendly, time efficient and socially distanced. This work will help define the principles that will shape healthcare in the UK and globally for the next 50 years.”