Demographics, referral patterns and management of patients accessing the Welsh Eye Care Service

BACKGROUND: The Primary Eyecare Acute Referral Service (PEARS) and the Wales Eye Health Examination (WEHE) operate as enhanced optometry services for patients residing in Wales, enabling the examination of a patient presenting with an acute eye problem (PEARS) or the examination of patients at higher risk of eye disease (WEHE). The purpose of the study is to assess the demographics of patients accessing these services, referral patterns and clinical management in one Health Board in Wales (Aneurin Bevan University Health Board). METHODS: Information from 2302 patients accessing the services was prospectively collected. The following information was obtained: type of examination (PEARS or WEHE), patient age, gender, self-referral or general practitioner (GP) referral and clinical management (no further action, monitor by optometrist or ophthalmic medical practitioner [OMP], refer to the Hospital Eye Service [HES], or refer to GP). RESULTS: There were 1791 (77.8 %) PEARS examinations and 511 (22.2 %) WEHE. There were 1379 (59.9 %) females with a mean age of 58.61 (±19.75) and 923 (40.1 %) males with a mean age of 56.11 (±20.42). The majority of patients were self-referrals compared to GP-referrals (1793 [77.9 %] versus 509 [22.1 %] respectively). Sub-analysis indicated similar numbers of self-referrals compared to GP-referrals for the WEHE only (297 [58.1 %] versus 214 [41.9 %] respectively) but greater numbers of self-referrals for the PEARS examinations only (1496 [83.5 %] versus 295 [16.5 %] respectively). For management, 75 % of patients were monitored by their optometrist or OMP, 17 % required referral to the HES and 8 % required referral to their GP. CONCLUSIONS: Higher numbers of females accessed both PEARS and WEHE services and the majority of patients self-referred. These findings have important implications for public health campaigns both for targeting specific groups (e.g. male patients) and increasing awareness among GPs.