Optometry Services
The Optometry Department provides a specialist optometric role within and alongside the Ophthalmology Service at Oxford Eye Hospital, and in a number of community clinics around Oxfordshire.
About the Optometry Department
Our team consists of optometrists, dispensing opticians, optometric assistants and support staff.
Hospital optometrists have an extended role compared to community or high street optometrists. They provide specialist refraction and contact lens services, as well as working in specialist clinics alongside ophthalmologists and other medical professionals.
Patients are referred to the Optometry Department by other departments within the Oxford Eye Hospital, as well as GPs and other ophthalmology units. We also take referrals from community optometrists for low vision assessments and specialist medical contact lens fitting.
Optometry Services
Complex refraction
Sight testing to determine the optimal glasses prescription and vision.
Children's Rapid Access Clinic (CRAC)
Refraction and ocular assessment for children referred from school screening, GPs or community optometrists. Please see our leaflet at the link below.
Jayda's trip to the Eye Hospital (pdf)
Contact lens fitting service for medical and therapeutic lenses
Conditions requiring contact lens fitting within the Hospital Eye Service may include keratoconus and traumatic eye injuries.
Adult and paediatric low vision assessment
Assessment of visual needs for low vision aids and advice regarding visual impairment.
Routine and specialist spectacle dispensing
For those who have had a glasses prescription issued from the Eye Hospital.
Visual fields
Assessment of peripheral vision using Humphrey or Goldmann visual field tests.
Colour vision assessment clinic
Specialist clinic to assess children with suspected colour vision problems, and give advice relating to everyday issues and career options.
Diagnostic ophthalmic ultrasound
Used to examine the eye when there is some opacity preventing normal examination with light, or to monitor the thickness of structures in the eye. It is a quick, painless procedure where a small camera is placed on the closed eyelid to take an image of the eye.
Ophthalmic imaging
- GDx and HRT imaging of the optic nerve and nerve fibre layer
- Corneal topography assessment of the corneal curvature
Visual electrodiagnostics
Measure the small electrical signals within the eye, and between the eye and brain, which occur in response to stimuli such as a flash of light or a moving pattern.
Private patients
Private patients are seen within the Optometry Department following referral from a Consultant Ophthalmologist. All of the services carried out by the Department are available to private patients.
Further details are available from the Optometry Secretary.
Other clinics
Optometrists also work in other clinics at the Oxford Eye Hospital.
Glaucoma shared care
Optometrist-led glaucoma clinics are run alongside Consultant Ophthalmologist clinics. Optometrists with specialist qualifications will make decisions on management based on the following assessments:
- visual fields
- the optic disc
- eye pressures
- thickness of the nerve fibre layer.
AMD (Age Related Macular Degeneration)
Optometrists work alongside ophthalmologists to assess and determine management plans for patients with AMD.
Diabetic Retinal Screening
Optometrist-led clinics assess the retinal health of diabetic patients who are not suitable to have annual digital photographic retinal screening.
Eye Casualty
Optometrists work alongside ophthalmologists in Eye Emergency.
Teaching and research
Optometry staff teach various professional groups, including pre-registration optometrists, medical students, orthoptists and ophthalmologists. The department is also involved in several research projects.
Optometry clinics are usually held once a month or every other month at:
- Abingdon Community Hospital - children's refraction
- Horton General Hospital - children's and adults' refraction, adults' low vision
- Bicester Montgomery House Surgery - children's refraction
- Didcot Community Hospital - children's refraction
- Wantage Mably Way Health Centre - children's and adults refraction, adults' low vision
- Witney Community Hospital - children's refraction, adults' low vision
Further details are available from the Optometry Secretary.
Contact us
- Optometry Department
Oxford Eye Hospital
Level LG1, West Wing
John Radcliffe Hospital
Headley Way
Oxford OX3 9DU
Links