Want to get some advice please from those who have had retinopathy treatment.
Do you go for regular NHS eye screening AND also go to a hospital consultant, private or NHS, for check ups? I see a consultant every 6 to 9 months because I have had quite a lot of laser treatment and 2 vitrectomies, but have been told by eye screening people that I don't need to go anymore because I see him, even though I've been going every 3 months for the past 10 yrs! Surely I should be seen still?
The point of diabetic eye screening is to detect any changes which require hospital referral at an early stage. Once someone has been referred to Ophthalmology for diabetic retinopathy, they no longer need to attend eye screening. If, at some point in the future, the hospital consultant decides that the retinopathy is stable, the person may be discharged back to eye screening for monitoring. They will then attend only eye screening but will be re-referred to hospital if any further significant changes occur. Also, if the eye screening programme hasn't received any results from the hospital in over a year, the person would be recalled automatically to eye screening as part of the failsafe processes.
As long as you are having a check for diabetic retinopathy at the hospital, you do not need to attend eye screening - this would be a waste of your time and NHS resources. Sometimes communications go awry and people end up having their diabetic retinopathy checked both at the hospital and at eye screening - this is an error.
However, there are some circumstance where people attend both the Ophthalmology department and eye screening appointments - this occurs when the person is being seen at the hospital for some other eye condition,e.g. glaucoma, and they are not having a diabetic retinopathy check at the same time.
When you next see your consultant, ask them if you are being checked for diabetic retinopathy. If they confirm that you are, then you do not need eye screening appointments.
Thanks to
@Diakat for the tag.