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Retinal Screener
Taking a Look Behind the Screens
About this blog
I'm a Retinal Screener and Grader currently working for the NHS as part of a Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Programme somewhere in England.
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- 1st Retinal Screen (1)
- Arbitration Grading (1)
- Background Retinopathy (1)
- BARS (2)
- Blepharitis (1)
- Cataracts (1)
- Characters (12)
- Christmas (2)
- Common Pathway (1)
- DESP (1)
- DESP E-Rate (2)
- Diabetes (3)
- Difficult Patients (7)
- Dry Eye (1)
- EQA (6)
- Grading Criteria (1)
- Honey (1)
- Info (3)
- Manuka Honey (1)
- NHS (1)
- Privatisation (1)
- R0 (2)
- R1 (1)
- R3 Stable (1)
- Retinal Screening for Dummies (1)
- Screening Intervals (1)
- Screening Issues (5)
- Single Field vs Two Field (1)
- Snow (3)
- TAT (2)
- Technical Problems (3)
- The Retinal Screening Song (1)
- Virgin Care (1)
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2 comments:
As more and more retinal screening programmes go private there seems to be more and more inconsistency with the pay and conditions for retinal screeners. Our programme has increased to 30-33 patients in a day but I know that there are programmes pushing this higher. The day becomes robotic and hectic if you have a 'run' of wheelchairs, poor mobility and 'challenging' patients. We are not allowed to discuss the images and any results so are very guarded in what we say which is a shame. As for pay, this probably varies around the country but also within the programme as newer recruits are offered less money. Belonging to a union is, I think, essential but I don't think there is any real cohesion within the union for retinal screeners. I think NHS grade 4 for trained and accredited screeners is fair but going private means that many screeners are on grade 3 equivalent and have a ceiling on the amount they can achieve. NHS screeners benefit from increases which private ones do not. It would be very interesting to hear from other screeners and their opinions...
We currently and for the past 6 years have screened 45-50 patients per day. It is without doubt hectic and more of a production line which makes it very hard to speak to patients in depth, the pressure is on to get them in and get them out. Our programme has not yet gone private but I think bidding is to take place very soon. I am very interested in the 2 year screening and think it very beneficial, as is the one field view for screen negative patients. This would certainly eliviate some of our stress from scheduling clinics to grading images. I agree about dilation drops in that it would certainly encourage patients to attend as the wait time in the appointment would be shorter and the after effects of the drops would not impeed their schedule. Would be nice to hear more about this from the powers that be who can implement a change.
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