Sharia Lindo

Reflecting on some of the BIOS work this year, despite the global pandemic and a whole change in the way we work and communicate, has made us focus on what is important for members and how we can support change. Independent Prescribing – we continue to lobby both through the House of Lords and parliament and have provided evidence for the scoping work being led by NHSE We have had continued representation on the national working groups for rehabilitation, Low Vision, Vision Screening, ACP, EDI, Public Health, HEE, clinical placement expansion, SIHED, CPD to name but a few and huge [...]

Last I wrote to you was at the beginning of March and the idea of coronavirus was only just coming into our sights – if only we had had a crystal ball at that time.  Since then our professional, and for some of us, our personal lives have been turned upside down and we are facing new challenges every day. We have seen orthoptists deployed to other specialist areas across our Health Board and others remaining in Orthoptics and ophthalmology to support patients that still require our specialist care - a massive well done to you all and for all [...]

As we are adjusting to the “new normal” and the dust is settling a bit, we maybe have a little time to remember that the HCPC requirements to engage in CPD, research and audit haven’t gone away, still need to be done. And although there are a lot of challenges, this is also a time of opportunity and learning. We are really missing conferences or getting together for CPD and networking, especially the postponed Liverpool Congress, but most organisations have moved online, and there is a lot of training out there.  WSPOS, ESA/ISA, BIPOSA and many national groups are all [...]

I am writing to provide an update on the NHSE Special Schools Eye Care Programme. I wrote about this in Parallel Vision on two previous occasions but now have more information. Work on this area was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic; however, some momentum is beginning to develop again. I have put the service documentation onto the BIOS website for members to access (link). This includes a service specification, guidance, and competency framework. I contacted departments at the start of 2020 to ask that you are happy for me to provide your email address to NHS England for contact, [...]

I am pleased to announce that Sajida Hanif will be joining me as joint lead of the Orthoptic Visual Processing Difficulties Clinical Advisory Group Lead. Hello everyone please let me introduce myself and give you some background on my interest in VPD. I work at Buckinghamshire NHS Trust and I’m the Deputy Head Orthoptist and the Lead for Visual Processing Difficulties Clinic service for our county. This covers Amersham, Buckingham, High Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville Hospital. We also receive out of area referrals for Hemel Hempstead, Milton Keynes and Oxford. My interest in VPD began when I attended my very [...]

I hope all of you have taken some time to rest and have time away from work over the summer.  It has been an exhausting time for everyone working through a pandemic and planning recovery of services along with the additional challenges that this brings. It is our BIOS and BOSTU AGMs on the 17th September and preparing the Chairs report has made me reflect on all the achievements that came about in 2019 for BIOS.  It will seem strange running an AGM through a remote virtual platform but thankfully a resolution last year has made this possible.  We could [...]

In late March 2020 NHS Scotland launched the video appointments system Near Me in all hospital and GP services.  Amidst the Covid19 crisis this offered the NHS Fife Orthoptic Service an exciting and innovative new way to stay connected to our patients.  Initially we used the technology to create a link with on call doctors working in Covid red zones.  Using an ipad, they could dial into the virtual orthoptic waiting room and receive assistance from an orthoptist to asses and diagnose emergency motility disorders without any exposure risk to our team and without any loss of clinical care for [...]