The Community Urgent Eyecare Service (CUES) has been live in Norfolk and Waveney since 15th June 2020. Over 1,000 patients have accessed the service. The service is symptom based with acute presentations, such as red eyes, sore eyes, painful eyes, flashes and floaters, recent and sudden reduction in vision and foreign bodies in the eye. It will not cover chronic eye conditions.

The key aims of the service are to improve the clinical outcome for patients, to minimise face to face contact, reduce waiting times, with services close to home as well as reducing the demand for secondary care. To date, over 70% of patients who access this service have been managed within primary care (including follow ups).

Please note: CUES is not a walk-in service. Patients requires screening; a telemedicine consultation will firstly need to be booked within a specific time frame (and then a face to consultation if required).

Over 67% of patients self-refer into the service, with around 23% being referred from GP surgeries (referred by reception staff or after seeing the GP). We encourage GP surgeries to train their reception staff to signpost appropriate patients to CUES to help reduce the burden on GP appointments. The list of accredited optical practices currently providing the service is available at www.primaryeyecare.co.uk using the ‘Find a practice’ tool.