An eye for excellence

PPU Focus

Moorfields Private opened its doors of its new clinic in New Cavendish Street, in the heart of London’s medical district, a year ago. Philip Housden takes a look at how it enhances the hospital’s private offering.

This impressive new facility in  New Cavendish Street adds to Moorfields Private’s established presence in Old Street as part of the main Moorfields City Road campus. 

For nearly 20 years, thousands of patients have been receiving comprehensive and innovative eye care at the City Road campus. 

The facility offers the highest-quality eye treatment, from the most complex eye conditions to the latest laser and implantable contact lens treatments for vision correction and also cosmetic eye procedures. 

Moorfields Private’s financial surplus is invested back into Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Trust to advance excellence in eye care. 

In 2022-23, the trust reported private patient revenues of £40.8m, up £3.65m (9.8%) on the previous year.  

This is 15.4% of total trust revenues, up from 14.7% in 2021-2 and the highest it has achieved. Moorfields ranks second only to The Royal Marsden in the percentage of trust income earned from private patients.

Since 1805, Moorfields has pioneered research, employed the brightest minds and delivered exceptional eye care, and it continues to set international standards in ophthalmology and trains surgeons from all over the world.

 

Today, together with the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, Moor­fields forms the only biomedical research centre dedicated to vision research that advances the use of artificial intelligence in diagnostics, robotic surgery, gene therapies and sight restorative technology.

Nearly 90 Moorfields Private consultants, all of whom are accredited at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, lead on international research projects, are members of national and international professional ophthalmology bodies and regularly present at international conferences and symposiums. 

Complex cases

All of the nurses and allied health professionals at Moorfields Private are specialists in ophthalmology and the team’s expertise means that they take on complex cases, which often require treatment unavailable anywhere else in the world. 

Moorfields Private, the UK’s largest private hospital site for cataract surgery, delivers over 3,000 private cataract procedures each year achieving high success rates. 

Patients interested in vision correction can choose from laser eye surgery, refractive lens exchange and implantable contact lenses. These are all performed using the most advanced refractive laser techniques and high-tech equipment, which is regularly updated to provide high accuracy, reduced operation time and better results.

The hospital’s oculoplastic surgeons offer a variety of cosmetic procedures treating areas around the eyes for functional and aesthetic purposes. 

All of them are both cosmetic surgery specialists and consultant ophthalmologists, which ensures the best advice and treatment available for the patients.

Opened two years ago, Moor­fields Private Rapid Access and Urgent Care Clinic offers same-day and next-day appointments with A&E ophthalmologists for adult patients with acute or undiagnosed symptoms and can be self-referred by patients.

Paediatric patients are cared for at the Richard Desmond Children’s Eye Centre, one of the world’s largest specialist children’s ophthalmology centres.

Dedicated pharmacy

At the City Road location, a stand­alone private outpatient centre is adjacent to the main hospital and offers patients a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.

It is set over four floors, where each floor has its own consulting rooms, diagnostic rooms and waiting area, where patients can relax prior to their appointment or while they wait for their diagnostic test results. 

The outpatient centre also has a dedicated pharmacy and offers 15 consulting rooms for adult patients, two dedicated consulting rooms for paediatric patients and three private in-patient areas with 19 rooms for overnight stays and cabins for day patients. 

There is a dedicated private pat­ient’s refractive suite, situated on the fourth floor of the main hospital. Laser eye surgery equipment, including excimer and femtosecond lasers, is upgraded every three years. 

The New Cavendish Street clinic is equipped with 11 consulting rooms, a refractive laser suite, operating theatre and two minor procedure rooms for consultations, diagnostic and day treatments.

Patients see the same consultant throughout their patient journey to ensure continuity of their care and high patient satisfaction.

Moorfields Private is also providing educational and professional support to primary care practitioners to continue to deliver a high standard of care for the whole patient pathway. 

Andrew Robertson, director of private care, explains: ‘We work closely with primary care providers, optometrists and GPs, taking on board their needs – whether it’s learning more about ophthalmic red flags and when to refer or getting support with complex cases or learning about the latest treatments and research.

‘We run regular free webinars accredited for continuing edu­cation and training and continuing professional development accredited webinars, courses, seminars, in-practice talks and other face-to-face events where participants can receive the most recent information and advice directly from our leading consultants.’

Philip Housden (right) is director of Housden Group commercial healthcare consultancy

• See ‘Merger leads to a major private unit’