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Two London PCTs on track to meet national targets

In April 2006, Westminster Primary Care Trust (PCT), in conjunction with Kensington and Chelsea PCT, introduced a population-wide Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Programme. Fiona Wilde, a communications manager at Westminster PCT explains how the service is implemented and the results achieved.

Before the new Diabetic Retinopathy Screening programme started not all people with diabetes registered with GPs in the two boroughs were being screened. Under the new programme, all people with diabetes registered with GPs in Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea are being invited to attend for screening once a year - unless they are already under the care of an ophthalmologist for diabetic retinopathy.

Screening is being provided by 1st Retinal Screen, a private company. This is the first arrangement of its kind for the PCT. Screening is provided at five sites including the Westminster Diabetes Centre, which opened in November 2005 as a community-based one-stop shop for people with diabetes. Previously these patients would have been treated in hospital. PCT staff work alongside 1st Retinal Screen to ensure that people who have sight-threatening retinopathy are promptly referred for further treatment at a local specialist hospital – either the Western Eye Hospital run by St Mary’s NHS Trust in Marylebone or Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Westminster PCT’s Director of Public Health, Dr Margaret Guy, is pleased with the results. She says: 

“We are well on course to meeting the targets that have been set by the Department of Health for retinopathy screening. All people aged 12 years and over known to have diabetes will have been invited to have their eyes screened using digital photography by December 2007. This means that, by March 2008, at least 80% of people with diabetes within our PCT will have been screened.”

To ensure the success of the programme, everyone involved in the screening service was consulted and included in the process. Today all GP practices in Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea - have signed up to the programme and by January 2007, 3,700 patients had been screened.

Further information on Westminster PCT’s Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Programme is available via their web site, www.westminster-pct.nhs.uk.