The College of Optometrists has led an update of the UK Eye Care Data Hub, significantly increasing its scope to support workforce planning and service design across the sector.<\/p>\n
The UK Eye Care Data Hub provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive model of the UK\u2019s eye care workforce and eye diseases in one place. The latest update nearly doubles the number of conditions included in the platform, with 38 additional eye diseases now featured, including keratoconus, retinal vein occlusion and ectropion. <\/p>\n
The hub now provides modelling for more than 80 conditions, offering prevalence and incidence estimates across the UK, broken down by nation, region, and Integrated Care Board (ICB) or Health Board, from 2023 to 2038.<\/p>\n
Workforce data has also been strengthened, with the inclusion of students enrolled in English Level 6 Degree Apprenticeships in Ophthalmic Dispensing, alongside updated datasets for optometry and ophthalmology workforces in Scotland for the first time.<\/p>\n
The enhanced hub is designed to support commissioners, clinicians and service planners in identifying future demand, tracking trends and making better use of workforce capacity.<\/p>\n
Irfan Razvi, optometrist and chair of Staffordshire Local Optical Committee (LOC), highlighted how the tool is already informing service transformation at a local level. <\/p>\n
Following collaboration between Staffordshire LOC and Local Eye Health Network, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB commissioned a first set of enhanced services aimed at reducing referrals into Hospital Eye Services and expanding community-based care.<\/p>\n
Razvi explained the project team is using the hub to model workforce capacity, disease prevalence and future demand, helping to ensure \u201cefficiency and sustainability\u201d as services shift from hospital to community settings.<\/p>\n
According to president of The College of Optometrists, Gillian Rudduck, the hub has seen clinicians, researchers and academics both in the UK and internationally using it since its launch in 2025. <\/p>\n
She emphasised that the hub is being used to inform service design and workforce optimisation across all four UK nations.<\/p>\n
Amy Hughes, head of research at Primary Eyecare Services, said that the tool has \u201csignificant potential\u201d for research and service development. <\/p>\n
Having used the hub herself, Hughes noted its usefulness in accessing workforce projections for a glaucoma filtering services project, particularly its detailed breakdown by higher qualification groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UK Eye Care Data Hub is an excellent resource with significant potential to support research and service development,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The hub was co-funded by a range of sector bodies, including the Association of British Dispensing Opticians, the British and Irish Orthoptic Society, the Federation of Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians and the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, alongside the Department of Health Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
Clinical data on eye conditions was developed through 16 expert working groups organised by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, with oversight from a multi-stakeholder advisory group.<\/p>\n
The College of Optometrists has confirmed that a further update to the hub is planned later this year, incorporating the first phase of ICB restructures in England and additional workforce data refinements.<\/p>\n
Welcoming the update, clinical and policy director at the AOP, Dr Peter Hampson, told OT: \u201cIt is great to see an ongoing commitment by the College of Optometrists to improve the understanding of eye disease prevalence in the UK. The more we understand about the type and volume of eye disease that exists, the more easily optometry can find ways to help colleagues in secondary care and more importantly patients by implementing services that improve access and decrease waiting times.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The College of Optometrists has led an update of the UK Eye Care Data Hub, significantly increasing its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8636,8637,8635,8634,8638,8639,4435,4434,8640,8632,5,8633,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-18828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-aop","9":"tag-association-of-optometrists","10":"tag-dr-amy-hughes","11":"tag-dr-gillian-rudduck","12":"tag-dr-peter-hampson","13":"tag-irfan-razvi","14":"tag-optometry-today","15":"tag-ot","16":"tag-staffordshire-loc","17":"tag-the-college-of-optometrists","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-uk-eye-data-hub","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116443482881477623","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}