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The children’s eye service monitors and treats children with reduced vision and related eye conditions.
The Children’s and Young People’s (CYP) Eye service provides an accessible, and child friendly service for CYP aged 0-16 (up to 19 from local SLD schools).
The care and treatment are tailored to the needs of the patients and their families.
The service provides eye assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for children and young people where there are concerns regarding reduction of vision in one or both eyes (amblyopia), squints, eye movements problems, binocular vision problems, and where there is a strong family history of squints, amblyopia or glasses from 5 or under.
The service is also able to offer assessment and treatment for patients with visual processing difficulties, and CYP with special educational needs (SEN) and learning disabilities.
The patients seen in the clinics are typically under the age of 8 years old. After this age, they are usually discharged to the care of a High Street Optician.
Contact the service
Service Leads - Judy Bee and Catherine Stewart
Contact: judy.bee1@nhs.net, catherine.stewart22@nhs.net
hct.cypspecialistservices@nhs.net or telphone 01923 470680 option 2
Locations of service
- St Albans Health and Wellbeing Centre (Children's Eye Service) - St Albans
- Marlowes Health & Wellbeing Centre (Children's Eye Service) - Hemel Hempstead
Parking at our centres
There is no available parking at St Albans Health and Wellbeing Centre and The Marlowes Health and Wellbeing Centre. There are a limited number of disabled car parking spaces.
For St Albans Health and Wellbeing Centre, the closest public car parks are the Civic Centre Car Park and Charter Close Car Park.
For The Marlowes Health and Wellbeing Centre, the closest public car parks are the Watergardens and Gadebridge Park.
- Address: Contact Details Service Leads - Judy Bee and Catherine Stewart Contact: judy.bee1@nhs.net, catherine.stewart22@nhs.net Telephone: 01727 891100/ 01727 891149/ 07795 169393. CYP Specialist services customer services HUB (for appointments) 01923 470680 (option 2).,
- How the service is provided
- Who is eligible for the service
- What will happen at your appointment
- Useful information
- Making a referral
- Patient experience
How the service is provided
Referrals are welcomed from GPs, health visitors, the school nursing service, Paediatricians, and other health care professionals.
The service is provided at two locations: St Albans Health and Wellbeing Centre and Marlowes Health and Wellbeing Centre.
The eye team is Allied Health Professional (AHP) led and comprises four orthoptists and two paediatric optometrists.
Who is eligible for the service
- Children and young people aged 0-16 (up to 19 from local SLD schools) who have a GP registered in St Albans, Harpenden, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring.
What will happen at your appointment
The initial appointment will be with the Orthoptist which typically takes between 20-30 minutes. They will ask the patient to look at toys, pictures, and letters if able to. The assessment is very child friendly, and the staff have a very gentle approach.
The Orthoptist may then arrange an appointment with the Paediatric Optometrist for a refraction (glasses check).
For the Optometrist appointment, the Orthoptist may have previously given the parent/carer some dilating eye drops to put in the child’s eyes one hour prior to the refraction/ optometry appointment. These eye drops can temporarily make near vision blurred and light will seem brighter whilst the pupils are dilated. The test is performed this way so that the Optometrist can have a thorough look at the eye health and shape of the eyes. If glasses are required, the Optometrist will give a special glasses voucher which is then taken to a Hight Street Optician for the glasses to be made.
Useful information
Parents and carers are encouraged to contact the service and their Hight Street Optician if they have any problems or concerns about the glasses being lost or broken.
Children can be referred on to a tertiary hospital for further tests or for squint surgery.
Websites
Information on the treatment of lazy eye
www.nhs.uk/conditions/lazy-eye/pages/treatment.aspx -
Squint Clinic
Screen time for kids
Have you heard of the Local Offer? If you are a young person with, or have a child with special educational needs and disabilities, (SEND) the Local Offer is Hertfordshire’s central source of information for SEND services and support. Visit www.hertsdirect.org/localoffer for an easily accessible one stop shop.
Making a referral
Referrals are made electronically via DXS or System One. Please contact: hct.cypspecialistservices@nhs.net 01923 470680 Please give full details of the concerns including family history and attach any further relevant information.
Our referral form can be found on the link above and once completed should be sent to:
Referral Admin Hub
Peace Children’s Centre
Watford
WD17 3EW
Patient experience
If you would like to share your story, please contact the Patient Experience team on 01707 388036 or email : hct.patientexperienceteam@nhs.net
We would also love to hear about your experience on our service, please complete a survey by clicking here.
We encourage patients and their families to comment on the friends and family test. There is an accessible QR code in the clinic and texts are also sent with links to the questionnaire. The service is always keen to improve and develop, and feedback is very positive.
