A BIG cash boost is set to help patients with the introduction of ‘virtual eye clinics’ in Bolton.

The town will be receiving a £1 million investment that is expected to cut times for treatments by more than half.

Currently many patients have lengthy appointments at the busy Eye Unit at the Royal Bolton Hospital where a number of tests are carried out by multiple staff.

But from Monday around 2,000 patients per year, who need monitoring for glaucoma or wet macular degeneration, will be invited to clinics at Waters Meeting Health Centre.

The appointments should take no more than an hour compared with two to three hours at the hospital.

Kath Smyth, clinical lead for ophthalmology, said: “As the population is living longer, so are we caring for more and more people with eye problems. There are also new treatments for previously untreatable conditions which means we need to see more patients.

“This new service is a very exciting development for Bolton. It will give much faster expert review for patients via the virtual clinics and free up more capacity to see patients at the Eye Unit.

“I think it is something of which we can all be very proud.”

An advanced ophthalmic technician will carry out all the tests at the centre in Waters Meeting Road and send them electronically to the doctor’s computer for analysis.

The results and next steps will be sent to the patient and their GP soon afterwards.

The changes will allow for large numbers of patients to be seen in the community and reduces the length of time that they wait for an appointment.

The new service has been designed in close collaboration between NHS Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Bolton NHS Foundation Trust.

It is modelled on a successful service running at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and the sessions at Waters Meeting will run each day from Monday to Friday and be delivered by five advanced ophthalmic technicians and three clinical leads.

Bolton CCG Barry Silvert, Clinical Director of Commissioning at NHS , said: “This is an exciting and transformational change to the way in which hospital eye care is delivered in Bolton. Ophthalmology services are under increasing pressure nationally and Bolton has taken this innovative step. By having co-developed an outcome based clinically sustainable model, Bolton’s eye care services are now fit for the future.”