Dr David Andrews (RANZCO), Peter Larsen (Specsavers), Dr Bradley Horsburgh (RANZCO), Charles Hornor (Specsavers) and Dr Russell Bach (RANZCO) celebrate the agreement between RANZCO and Specsavers

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO) has released the first of a series of planned referral guides for optometrists and GPs to help provide more effective and efficient patient care pathways and improve eye health outcomes for patients across Australasia.

The first of the referral guidelines, looking at glaucoma management, was released at the beginning of August. Guidelines on diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are expected to be released in the near future, with other indications to be released later, following feedback.

In a statement RANZCO said these referral guidelines do not favour and are not dependent upon any one particular practice referral system or methodology. “They simply provide a resource which lays out a suggested referral pathway if certain signs and or symptoms are identified. The aim is to ensure patients receive the best care possible, in the most appropriate timeframe and from the appropriate healthcare provider.”

The referral guidelines are based on peer-reviewed publications about best practice in relation to referrals for symptoms and disease areas. “That said, we recognise that what works best in theory is not always what works best in practice and so we will be assessing the effectiveness and usability of the guidelines,” said Dr Bradley Horsburgh, RANZCO president. “We are all part of the eye healthcare system and it’s important that we deliver that as smoothly and effectively as possible for patients.”

MoU with Specsavers

Though RANZCO stressed it is seeking feedback from all optometrists, ophthalmologists and GPs who use the new referral guidelines, to ensure it gathers feedback quickly it has agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), or statement of intent, with Specsavers Australia and New Zealand to run a two-year pilot programme to gather metrics and data. “Given the number of Specsavers optometric practices, this pilot will allow us to efficiently gather data to assess the effectiveness of the guidelines,” said RANZCO.

“Working with Specsavers does not limit the availability of the referral guidelines. The guidelines will be promoted and made widely available to all optometrists and GPs across Australia and New Zealand.”

In a joint statement RANZCO and Specsavers said both parties will share resultant data with healthcare funding and management bodies to shed greater light on eye health and broader healthcare outputs.

“With a growing and ageing population in both Australia and New Zealand we have a duty to ensure that there is ingrained collaboration between optometry and ophthalmology,” said Peter Larsen, Specsavers’ optometry director. “It is not enough to say we work together, we actually need to set ourselves specific areas of collaboration and measure the effectiveness and efficiency of that collaboration. This arrangement between Specsavers and RANZCO does just that, the goal being superior patient outcomes.”

Larsen said the first discussions with RANZCO about using Specsavers’ ANZ network of optometrists to proactively review the guidelines took place in March. “And a meeting of minds quickly emerged, leading to this MoU.”

RANZCO will be running training sessions on the guidelines at the 2016 RANZCO Congress in Melbourne in November this year for all optometrists and GPs who wish to attend, while Specsavers will be releasing more details about the MoU and what it means in practice for Specsavers’ optometrists at its 2016 Clinical Conference in Brisbane this month.

To download and review the first RANZCO Referral Pathway for Glaucoma Management go to: https://ranzco.edu/ophthalmology-and-eye-health/collaborative-care/referral-pathway-for-glaucoma-management