12 November 2024

Staff and patients from Bridlington Hospital’s Eye Clinic have celebrated 10 years of treating patients across the East Coast.

The clinic is a success story for York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The clinic, which is the main intravitreal injection site on the East Coast, first opened after outgrowing its then base at Scarborough Hospital and initially started as a weekly Saturday clinic with just 30 patients.

Today, the clinic is operational for injections three days a week, seeing 80 patients a day and runs from five consulting rooms at Bridlington Hospital.  It treats patients who suffer loss of central vision due to macular oedema secondary to macular degeneration, retinal vein occlusions and diabetes.  The drugs are injected into the eye to slow or stop the growth of abnormal blood vessels. They can also improve vision in some patients and help keep patients living independently for longer.

“It’s time to celebrate what we have achieved, and I am thrilled to see how far we have come,” explained Fiona Bailey, Consultant Ophthalmologist.

As Head of Bridlington’s Intravitreal Injection Clinic, Fiona has witnessed the department grow over the past decade, not only in the number of patients it regularly treats but in the days it is operational.

“We just couldn’t cope with the number of patients we had to treat,” recalls Fiona, “and we are likely to grow again as we are extremely busy. We have already had to open more days to deal with the increasing number of patients with factors such as an ageing population, a higher number of diabetic cases and the number of retired people who come to live on the East Coast all feeding into this.”

Clinic staff are working on launching a virtual clinic to help with the climb in caseloads.  The clinic received over £140,000 from two innovative healthcare companies (Bayer AG and Roche) who together have granted vital funding to pay for specialist diagnostic cameras and rooms. The grant allows patients to be scanned on the East Coast on the cameras whose images can be reviewed by clinicians working in York.

Fiona praised her team for their collaborative efforts over the past decade.

“I am fortunate to work in a great team, many of whom combine working with us with other jobs, within both the hospital and community setting. All the team are fantastic.  They make a daunting treatment possible, and we couldn’t do it without them.”

To mark 10 years, the team hosted a special day at the clinic with a celebratory cake, a ‘real life’ looking eye cake made by Fiona.

“Here’s to the next 10 years,” Fiona added.