Moorfields welcomes Secretary of State for Health

Stephen Barclay, Secretary of State for Health visited Moorfields Eye Hospital at City Road on Thursday 25 August to announce new funding for the expansion of surgical hubs. He was welcomed by Sheila Adam, director of nursing and allied health professionals and Jonathan Wilson, chief financial officer.

He chose Moorfields as the site because we already host two of the first 91 nationwide, at St Ann’s and City Road, and his announcement of 50 more includes an additional Moorfields hub.

He followed the route taken by low-complexity cataract patients through Sedgwick ward at City Road. He saw at first hand how we have increased our capacity by moving the waiting area, theatre and recovery areas physically closer together and by making our processes more streamlined. As part of the tour, Stephen visited an operating theatre and a cataract operation by consultant ophthalmologist Vincenzo Maurino and his team was filmed and broadcast on national TV.

See the video of Vincenzo’s cataract surgery (External link to the televised news story, may contain advertisements and flashing lights)

Whilst with us, he heard about our plans for Oriel from Jo Moss, director of strategy and partnerships, before heading outside to announce the investment, from which Moorfields will benefit.

Finally, he headed outside to announce this funding for 50 new hubs to the waiting TV crews.