Referral and monitoring of eye health concerns

Some optometrists are now able to accept referrals of patients with eye conditions such as glaucoma for filtering and monitoring within the community.

Filtering appointments require more in-depth testing by an optometrist with specialist training in your local community to avoid unnecessary hospital referrals, where monitoring appointments are in place of hospital appointments to monitor the health of your eyes by an optometrist with advanced training.

This may or may not be in your usual optometry practice and does not replace your routine sight test with your usual optometrist.

This means certain patients can be seen more quickly and treated in the community, which may be closer to their home address.

If your optometrist has concerns about your eye health at your routine eye test, they will inform you whether the next step is to see a qualified optometrist in the community or whether a referral directly into the hospital eye service is needed.