Information for GPs

The easiest way for your patients with diabetes to be screened is to ensure that everyone with diabetes in your practice is correctly Reed coded as having the condition.

The screening programme will then receive a monthly list of everyone with diabetes – taken from regular data extracts from your practice system.

The screening programme will send an appointment to all new patients on that list. Old patients, known to the screening service, will receive annual appointments in any case.

If you have a new patient, and you don’t want to wait for the next quarterly electronic list collection by BLMK ICB, you can email a referral form to: bhn-tr.bedford.retinaladmin@nhs.net

Further information

We write to all GPs if their patient does not attend their appointment. We would appreciate it if you could let us know if you know of any reasons why these patients may not be suitable for screening. For example:

• They do not have diabetes and were coded in error
• They are bedbound / housebound /medically unfit and should be marked as that on our register
• They are persistent DNAs with the practice
• They prefer to opt out of our service
• They are registered blind with no perception of light
• They are no longer registered with your practice

We feel by cleansing our register by moving patients who continually DNA into the correct pathway (e.g. medically unfit, not diabetic, opt out) will allow the Screening Programme to concentrate its efforts on the eligible population.

Secondly, if you find patients are suitable for screening, we would encourage the practice to speak to these patients in order to reiterate the importance of attending eye screening either on the phone, writing to them or when they come in for an appointment. We have found that this works well, as direct contact from the patient’s practice tends on having a bigger impact on encouraging them to attend.