Diabetic Retinopathy Screening confirmed to be brought back to Heywood

The Diabetic Retinopathy Screening service will be brought back to Heywood following a long and hard fought campaign by the Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Action Group.

The group received confirmation last week that they had won their fight to bring the service back.

Raj Patel, Medical Director, NHS England (Lancashire and Greater Manchester) said: “Following a thorough review process of the future provision of the North East Manchester Diabetic Eye Screening Programme, NHS England (Lancashire and Greater Manchester) have now come to a decision.

“A formal engagement process involving stakeholders and patients identified the preferred option for the future of the service would be to offer screening across twelve screening sites. NHS England have agreed to implement this option with site configuration beginning in early November, this will be monitored by the North East Diabetic Eye Screening Programme Board and the Greater Manchester Diabetic Eye Screening Programme Board.

“NHS England are committed to continue and further develop service user involvement in the commissioning of this programme.”

Mr Hashmi, Clinical Lead for the North East Manchester Diabetic Eye Screening Programme and Medical Director for Ophthalmology, at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “The North East Manchester Diabetic Eye Screening Programme was keen to see an increase in the number of sites offered for screening and is pleased with the outcome of the engagement process which increases the existing six sites to 12. The changes will improve access to this vital screening service for our patients.

“The programme will implement the increased offer of sites over the next 12 months beginning in November 2015. Additionally, listening to patient feedback, we will be building some evening sessions into the service to further improve access to and uptake of the screening offer. We look forward to continuing to work with and build on the patient networks we have established as part of this process to ensure service users are a key part of future service developments.”

A decision was made in early 2104 to reduce the available venues for the screening service to only six static sites. This decision left Heywood and Middleton without a local venue, meaning that all local diabetics had to travel out of Heywood to access the service.

Campaigner Janet Lees said: “We are thrilled to bits. It has been over a year since we started the campaign and we are so pleased with the results.”