Charn Gill1, Rishika Chaudhary2, Robert Scott3
PURPOSE
The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCO) suggests that surgery for Retinal Detachment (RD) should be performed within
a day for macula-on and within a week for macula-off detachments. We performed a retrospective study to determine whether
a structured on-call rota for consultants out of hours resulted in an increase in these targets being achieved and therefore
providing a seven-day-a-week service.
METHODOLOGY
A retrospective study of the 1726 emergency RD patients that presented or were referred to a specialist centre in the UK were
reviewed for efficiency prior to and after the implementation of a Vitreoretinal (VR) on-call rota.
RESULTS
The mean length of time between presentation and surgery for macula-on RDs fell from 1.17 to 1.01 days (p<0.05) after the
establishment of the VR service. Those presenting on Sunday had a significantly less wait time for surgery from 2.56 to 1.00
days (p<0.05). No patient had to be transferred out of the region for emergency surgery after the on-call service was
introduced.
CONCLUSION
The commencement of an on-call service resulted in patients with macula-on RDs being treated more efficiently and meeting
the treatment target of within 24 hours.
