Ophthalmology

Welcome to Barts Health Eye Service. We provide a wide range of treatments for adult and paediatric eye disease. We are one of the country's leading centres for paediatric cancers of the eye.

Our experienced team treats patients of all ages and provides a comprehensive 24-hour service for the local community.

Retinoblastoma Services (The Royal London Hospital)

We are the only centre in the south of England (and one of only two in the country) that can screen, diagnose and treat retinoblastoma. Find out more about our retinoblastoma service. 

The latest technology

The Eye Treatment Centre at The Royal London Hospital is fully equipped and includes state of the art technology including:

  • YAG and argon lasers (for high precision treatment)
  • Swept source OCT (for accurate imaging of fundus cross-sectional and en face scans, optical coherence tomography angiography at increased depth)
  • Corneal topography (a non-invasive imaging technique to map the cornea)
  • Clinical photography room with Topcon digital system for FFA/ICG (to look for eye diseases).

Specialist clinics - Adults with Learning Disabilities

A specialist clinic held at The Royal London Hospital for adults with learning disabilities who are not suitable to be seen in the community. Our award-winning clinic is well-known for providing reasonable adjustments for this patient group.

Emergency Care (The Royal London Hospital)

Our service can assess patients with emergency eye symptoms (vision loss, flashes in vision, ocular pain). The emergency service also assesses patients who have been in serious accidents and who have eye problems linked to other medical conditions.

Patients that need to stay in hospital because of eye problems are admitted to the wards which are shared with other head and neck specialties (maxillofacial, ENT and plastic surgery).

Vitreoretinal services (Whipps Cross Hospital)

Vitreoretinal surgery is offered on the Whipps Cross site where we manage patients with vitreoretinal diseases including rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, proliferative diabetic retinopathy and traction retinal detachment, macular hole, epiretinal membrane, and vitreomacular traction.

Vitreoretinal clinics are held on Mondays and Wednesdays, and surgery is performed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays each week.

Eye Care Liaison Officer (ECLO) – Whipps Cross Hospital

A service that provides dedicated advice and guidance about eye conditions as well as resources and advice for people living with sight loss.

Patients at any stage of their eye care journey can access support; whether someone has had sight loss for some time, has newly acquired sight loss, has a new diagnosis or is having treatment for an eye condition. By offering dedicated individual care, the ECLO can talk to you about your worries and give you advice on how to lessen the impact your eye condition may have on your life.

Alongside sight loss and other eye conditions, our ECLO also provides advice to patients and their relatives/carers about welfare benefits they may be entitled to, vision rehabilitation, mental health and emotional wellbeing, children's services and support in education settings, employment - staying in work or finding work, voluntary organisations and local support groups for people with sight loss and the process of becoming registered as blind or partially sighted and the benefits of being registered.

To exclusively contact Whipps Cross ECLO call 07895 214 871 

For general appointment queries please contact 0208 535 6768 or email appointments.bartshealth@nhs.net

Find out more

* Please note that Eye Casualty at Whipps Cross is located in the former Children’s Outpatients.

Eye Care Liaison Officer (ECLO) – The Royal London Hospital 

Chloe Phillips is our new ECLO at The Royal London Hospital.

To exclusively contact Chloe please call 07511047197 

For general appointment queries please contact 020 7767 3200 or email appointments.bartshealth@nhs.net

Other Services

Our services also include:

  • Eye surgery unit for day-care treatments
  • Outpatient Care (Cataract, Glaucoma, Medical Retina, Ocular Immunology, General Ophthalmology, Lid and Lacrimal, Neuro-Ophthalmology, Low-Vision, Contact Lens)
  • Adult and Paediatric Orthoptic Service
  • Multi-disciplinary Facial Trauma clinic
  • Specialist Retinoblastoma Service
  • Glaucoma Monitoring service
  • Diagnostic services such as Fluorescein Angiography, Indocyanine Green Angiography, Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography, Retinal Photography, Nasal Endoscopy, Visual field Analysis
  • Treatments (Intravitreal injections, YAG and retinal lasers)

For patients

The eye is an intricate structure. You may need to be seen by a number of different specialists and undergo a series of tests, so that we can accurately assess, diagnose and then manage your condition.

Multidisciplinary Working

We provide planned and emergency care for patients with eye disease and visual problems. Eye problems frequently occur in conjunction with other medical conditions or trauma – and we have a great deal of experience in treating patients of all ages with complex needs.

Our team consists of ophthalmologists (specialists in eye diseases), orthoptists (specialists in binocular vision and eye movement abnormalities), optometrists (experts in vision), nurses, medical photographers, a dispensing optician and supporting health professionals.

We work in a multi-disciplinary team so that patients can be seen by a number of different specialists and experience the best possible outcomes.

The team also works in collaboration with specialists in:

Diabetes

Endocrinology

Cancer

Neurosciences

Oral and Maxillofacial

ENT - Ear, Nose and Throat

Dermatology

Plastic Surgery

Immunology (including HIV and AIDS medicine)

For clinicians

Patients with emergency medical problems should seek referral via their GP or the local Emergency Department. The clinical care of patients admitted in an emergency is shared between our acute medicine and general medicine teams.

Referring patients

If you are a GP or other referring clinician and wish to refer a patient to services at Barts Health, please use the information for each of our sites provided below.

Referring patients to The Royal London Hospital

  • Clinics available at The Royal London Hospital are:
  • Paediatric Ophthalmology
  • Retinoblastoma
  • General Ophthalmology
  • Cataract
  • Cornea/Anterior Segment
  • Lid and Lacrimal
  • Medical Retina
  • Glaucoma
  • Neuro-ophthalmology
  • Ocular-Immunology
  • Adults with Learning Disabilites

Referrals can be sent to Ophthalmology Secretaries team:

Ophthalmology Secretaries
Royal London Hospital
Whitechapel
E1 1BB

Telephone:

0203-594-2761

0203-594-2755

0203-594 -2747

Fax: 0203-594-3269

Patients can also be referred to us by Choose and Book (for first outpatient appointments) or you can send or fax a letter to our Outpatients Appointments Centre:

Outpatients Appointments Office

Barts Health,

1st Floor, 9 Prescot Street,

London E1 8PR

Tel: 020 7767 3200 (8.30am-5pm, Monday to Friday)

Fax: 020 7791 9670

Email: appointments@bartshealth.nhs.uk

Requests for advice and guidance can be submitted through Choose and Book. A clinician will respond to this within three working days.

Out-of-hours and emergency referrals

Emergency referrals can be made through the on-call Ophthalmology doctor via switchboard, on: 020 7377 7000