Information for the public

HEIW support optometrists and other eye care practitioners by providing a programme of high quality education, mentoring, and skills training facilitating continuous improvement through reflective practice.

Pro-active workforce planning from HEIW ensures there are sufficient eye health care professionals to meet the growing demands for eye care services in Wales, providing accessible, equitable, quality eye care for all citizens across Wales. HEIW leads the way in Quality improvement and leadership development for optometry professionals.

There are key roles for optometrists in reducing the number of referrals into the hospital eye service, the management of more patients in primary care, including patients currently under the hospital eye service. Orthoptists and nursing are also crucial to support ophthalmology services.

To achieve these aims, Health care professionals need to be upskilled with further postgraduate education and continued professional development. Aligned to this is a requirement for optometrists to be supported when they take on extra clinical roles and, crucially, enable them to become more adept at managing and accepting clinical risk. Optometry in Wales does not have a significant presence in hospital eye care and this also needs to be supported and developed, allied to developing our future clinical leaders.

HEIW commission qualifications that are designed to help optometrists in primary care practice. Specifically, qualifications that can facilitate management of:

1. Patients with glaucoma and ocular hypertension
2. Patients with Age related Macular Degeneration (AMD), especially neovascular AMD and other medical retina conditions
3. Acute eye care presentations, through the prescribing of medication for conditions affecting the eye.

By targeting these qualifications and ensuring they can be offered to optometrists working in every cluster in Wales, we will achieve national coverage, targeting a reduction in demand for secondary care across Wales.

We are also working with health boards and colleagues to increase placements for optometrists studying higher qualifications.

The long term goal is to decrease the pressures on secondary care eye care services and ensure more patients are treated and managed closer to home whilst reducing the number of patients being sent to secondary care from optometrists in Wales.

For eye care professionals

In April 2021 the training and education required to provide eye care services in Wales (including the Eye Health Examinations Wales; Eye Health Examinations Wales (EHEW) and Low Vision services) function was moved from Cardiff University and Wales Optometry Postgraduate Education Centre (WOPEC) into HEIW. This means that if you are an optometrist or Dispensing Optician and you want to offer Low Vision or Eye Health Examinations Wales (EHEW) services for the first time you need to contact HEIW by emailing us at heiw.optometry@wales.nhs.uk. We will then give you information about the service, as well as all you need to know about becoming accredited. Please note that HEIW are also responsible for all education and training for the new Wales General Optical Services (WGOS) contract in Wales.

For practitioners that are already accredited in Eye Health Examinations Wales (EHEW) and /or Low Vision Service Wales (LVSW) there is NO requirement to reaccredit. However, there are 4 additional modules that are MANDATORY to complete to enable you to provide the new Wales General Optical Services (WGOS) services. These are; Wales General Optical Services (WGOS) overview, Make Every Contact Count, Infection Prevention Control and Sharps Safety, and Quality Improvement Foundations Training.

It is also MANDATORY for dispensing opticians and any staff employed or engaged to assist in the performance of Wales General Optical Services (WGOS) services to complete these four modules.

Y Ty Dysgu is a new learning platform from HEIW designed to support your education and training needs.

Please click the link below to sign up/sign in and you will be taken to your dashboard. Please allow 48 hours for access to the platform from initial sign up.

Welcome! - Y Ty Dysgu - Heiw

You can find instructions on how to register and sign in on our PDF help guide.