High up in the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) sits the Claremont Wing, which has just celebrated its 30th birthday. Alongside doctors, nurses and optometrists, a team of orthoptists works there.
Orthoptics is a specialist branch of healthcare focused on assessing, diagnosing and treating conditions that affect vision – from double vision in adults to common childhood issues such as squints and lazy eyes.
An 'incredibly niche' profession
Two of the RVI's orthoptists, Lucy Ball and Jenny Earl, spoke to ChronicleLive about their work and how the role has evolved.
Lucy, who is still in the early stages of her career, said: "We work with both children and adults who have vision and eye movement problems. Generally that's with children who have lazy eyes or squints and adults who might have double vision. It's quite a niche profession - with only three universities offering the course. I had always wanted to get into healthcare. It's nice to be able to help people in a way that no-one else can - because our area is so specialist, no-one else can do what we do."
Jenny explained: "Each patient is different. Our role sees us use a problem-solving approach to support them - and we're part of a really wide-ranging multi-disciplinary team. We will do lots of vision assessments, lots of scans! There are so many different expanded roles to take on. Now we can specialise in so many different areas."
Fun patches and eye drops
One of the most typical patients seen by orthoptists is a child with a lazy eye – a patient type this reporter knew first-hand in the late 1990s. Back then, beige elastoplast-style patches were common and often hated by an image-conscious child.
Lucy said treatment has come on significantly: "Now we have lots of options - there's the option of eye drops - along with eye patches. Back then, it would have just been the boring patches, but now we have fun ones."
The pair explained that making treatment easy for children to engage with is key. Lucy added: "It's the same with kids' glasses - there are much more available. It's much easier to encourage kids to wear them. Like with patches, if you can make them fun so the child enjoys wearing them, that really helps!"
30 years at the RVI
The ophthalmology department at the RVI has now been in place for 30 years. In 1996, it moved from a number of sites across the city, bringing complex surgical procedures together with a range of other services.
Speaking last month, head optometrist Aedheen Regan said: "The service is really completely different to 30 years ago. For me, as much as there will be mornings where I might complain, this is such a rewarding job. And the fact that it is constantly changing keeps us on our toes."
