The Ophthalmic unit serves a population of around 1 million people mainly from Aylesbury Vale in Buckinghamshire, but including parts of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Oxfordshire. The unit operates from a purpose-built building (the Mandeville Wing) which opened 12 years ago, as well as sites at Wycombe and Amersham hospitals. It is fully equipped with modern out-patient facilities including clinic rooms, Orthoptic and Optometric departments, visual fields, Argon, YAG and SLT lasers, Electro-diagnostics, and a fully linked imaging suite which features anterior and posterior segment imaging including OCT, Fundus photography, Fluorescein and ICG angiography, auto-fluorescence imaging, and Wavefront analysis. There is a 5-bedded Eye ward from which the emergency eye service is delivered, also housed within the Mandeville wing.
The Consultant body covers most sub-specialty areas with little need for onward referral except in complex tertiary cases, for which links with Oxford and Moorfields are readily available. The unit sees around 50,000 out-patients per year at the Stoke Mandeville site and a further 24,000 at Wycombe and Amersham sites. There are around 6,400 operations per year in three dedicated eye theatres, and a separate cataract theatre unit for appropriate high-volume surgery. Most surgeries are day-cases, but some inpatient cases are performed with access to the 5 in-patient beds on our ward 14.
The delivery unit has a General Manager, Service Manager, and an accountant, and is part of the Surgical Directorate. Regular weekly teaching is held in conjunction with the Oxford Eye Hospital, and research and audit projects are actively encouraged. Microsurgical skills teaching and training is a strength of the unit, and it has a well-established skills centre which has just been updated, along with an EyeSi surgical simulator. The trust supports remote working where possible and appropriate, e.g., for meetings, SPA, and DCC admin activities. Time off in lieu will be supported for unforeseen emergency work overnight. If mentoring is required, the department will actively support and facilitate it.
Secretarial support consists of 8 medical secretaries and one support secretary who work within the department to assist the consultants. The proposed job plan would consist of 10 programmed activities, with the breakdown detailed within the job plan in the JD. This is subject to change based on clinic room and site availability.
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