A new specialist eye service in Birmingham has helped save the sight of nearly 450 people in its first year, more than three times the number originally planned. Now the ophthalmology team at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, who set up the service, has been honoured with an award from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
The team, hailed for their project, “Saving sight the NICE way” won the clinical category of the NICE Shared Learning Awards for successfully implementing NICE guidance on the use of the drug ranibizumab (Lucentis) for the treatment of a type of eye disease called wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD). There are about 26,000 new cases of wet AMD in the UK each year.
Work on the clinic began in 2007 after the ophthalmology team began following the development of this guidance. Working with a range of experts, the service was able to treat its first patient with ranibizumab just three working days after the guidance recommending the treatment was published. Thanks to short waiting times and a flexible way of working all patients receive their first assessment within one week of being referred and none of those treated during the first year have been registered blind.
Marie Tsaloumas and Helen Palmer are consultant ophthalmologists at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and lead the team at the eye service. Marie Tsaloumas said: “Having anticipated the NICE guidance, we worked closely with a range of GPs, optometrists, patients and others to establish an effective and efficient service. The number of patients treated is a clear testament to the effectiveness of this approach and we expect to help even more in the coming years.
“The main lessons we have learnt are that NICE guidance is your ‘friend’ in developing services to help patients, and that team work is essential.”
Two other projects from the West Midlands also walked away with prizes from the NICE Shared Learning Awards. The Staffordshire branch of the drug and treatment charity Addaction won the ‘Health and Wellbeing’ category for their work to improve a needle and syringe programme using appropriate NICE guidance. South Staffordshire and Shropshire NHS Foundation Trust came top in the ‘General’ category for their work to ensure doctors and other healthcare professionals are aware of relevant NICE guidance to help them treat, and give information to, patients. Each winner was presented with a trophy, certificate and cheque for ??1,000 to help them put NICE guidance into practice.
Chris Connell, NICE’s Implementation Consultant for the West Midlands who helps local organisations put NICE guidance into practice, said: “To have the West Midlands win all three categories at the NICE Shared Learning Awards highlights the hard work by organisations in the region to use NICE guidance for the benefit of patients.
“All three projects thoroughly deserve their awards. The team at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust in particular deserve their accolade. The gift of sight is truly precious and the team’s unwavering dedication to helping save the sight of hundreds of patients is inspiring.”
Nominations for the 2010 Shared Learning Awards are now open. NICE is encouraging any organisations to submit examples to the Shared Learning Database of how they are putting NICE guidance into practice, which will automatically be entered into the awards. More information and examples can be found here.
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NICE
View drug information on Lucentis.