Welcome to the High Volume Cataract Surgery site, on this site you will find:
- Introduction to the High Volume Cataract Surgery delivery model created by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD)
- Learning resources to enable educational skill development to support Step 7 of this model
- Success stories
- Surgical safety checklists
Improving the delivery of cataract surgery
Cataract surgery is one of the most successful surgical procedures delivered across NHS Scotland, with a high safety profile and positive outcomes for patients.
Demand for cataract surgery has increased due to changing demographics. In response, it has been recommended that High Volume Cataract Surgery (HVCS) be adopted as a delivery model. In HVCS, a minimum of 8 procedures are performed per core 4-hour session (NHS Executive 2000).
Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD)
To support roll-out of the model the CfSD have developed two key documents.
A national unit designed to sustainably improve and transform Scotland's health care system through innovation, collaboration and clinical leadership
The blueprint recognises that the development of specific career pathways, training, education and upskilling team members maximises overall productivity. It also supports the growth of specialised, well-coordinated, teams and outlines the clear roles, responsibilities and goals that are needed in fast paced, high-volume lists. Workforce development through education and training, has therefore been identified as one of the key enablers of the HVCS model.
The CfSD blueprint recommends 10 steps to success, step 7 of this process is to Create a High Performing Team. Each of the steps share equally important overlapping principles which should be included when implementing the model at service level.
Create a high performing team
NHS Scotland Academy has produced High Volume Cataract Surgery learning resources to support the operationalisation of ‘Step 7 Create a High Performing Team’ by providing clinical team members with resources to enable educational skill development in specific areas.
Please review the introduction video which provides an overview of the resource.
This resource is arranged in four online learning units.
| Unit | Team members aimed at |
|---|---|
| Unit 1 - Consent | Registered |
| Unit 2 - Marking the Skin | Registered |
| Unit 3 - Prepping and Draping | Registered |
| Unit 4 - Eye Drop Administration | Unregistered, band 2-4 |
You must be logged in to your Turas account to view and access these units - Sign in | Register for a Turas account.
Success stories
To find out more about the benefits of the HVCS model to patient outcomes and ophthalmology teams, please review the following video from Sirjuhn Patel, NHS Tayside Ninewells - The Nursing Sucess Story | High Volume Cataract Eye Surgery.
Surgical safety checklists
World Health Organisation surgical safety checklist
Most service areas will use an adapted version of the WHO Safer Surgery Checklist which has been developed to increase teamwork and communication and reduce errors and adverse events in the surgical setting. This is usually managed on an electronic patient record system, for example Opera, this however will vary across Scotland. The 19-item WHO safer surgery checklist has demonstrated a reduction in morbidity and mortality across the world and will be referred to throughout this resource.
Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth)
The RCOphth suggests that a cataract-specific WHO checklist should be used. They have developed a Surgical safety checklist tailored for cataract procedures, which surgical teams can consider adapting to enhance patient safety in their own practice settings.
RCOphth WHO surgical safety checklist (opens in a new window)
References
Department of Health. "Action on Cataracts—Good Practice Guidance". NHS Executive. Feb 2000. http://www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/01/45/14/04014514.pdf