New hospital suite opens for eye procedures

A hospital has launched a specialist "state-of-the-art" £250,000 ophthalmology suite for eye procedures.

Kettering General Hospital (KGH) said the new facility will benefit about 1,400 patients a year who need injections to combat conditions which affect vision and can lead to blindness.

The "one-stop" suite will be based at Nene Park Outpatients Centre, near Irthlingborough, north Northamptonshire, and will mean patients would not need to make repeat visits to hospital.

Jayshree Menon, the clinical ophthalmology lead at KGH, said it would, over time, reduce patient waiting times by freeing up the hospital's operating theatres.

The suite will be used to treat conditions such as macular degeneration - an eye disease that blurs central vision - and diabetic retinopathy, where the centre of the retina becomes leaky or blocked, using injections of medications designed to prevent or reverse further degeneration.

The service will start by seeing 84 patients per week and build up to more than 140 per week.

Michael Knighton, 61, from Burton Latimer, was one of the first patients to experience the new facility.

He has had 19 eye injections in the last two years to treat diabetic macular oedema – a condition that affects the central sharp vision – and said attending "was quick and easy with free parking".

He added: "It is mostly the same people looking after you, just in a new location, so you feel quite comfortable.

"Your vision is tested in the tunnel room first and then you have numbing eye drops to prepare you for the injections themselves, which for me was for both eyes.

"I was very pleased with the service."

Patients will be referred to the service in the usual way via their GP or hospital consultant.

On arrival at Nene Park patients will check in, have vision tests, and then have their procedure - which in most cases will last no more than 20 minutes.

KGH said patients cannot drive after having the procedure, so they would need to be supported by a relative or friend or use public transport.

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