MP backs drive to cut waiting times

Pictured, left to right, CHEC Wandsworth NHS partnership executive, Lataliya Blackman-Williams; CHEC mobilisation manager, Christina Whittaker, CHEC deputy CEO, Matt Currall; Marsha de Cordova, Labour MP for Battersea; CHEC’s head of partnerships for the South, Steven Hunkin; CHEC Wandsworth hospital manager Amy Notschild, CHEC NHS partnership executive, Alicia Pompon; CHEC’s chief medical officer, Des Breen.

Labour MP Marsha de Cordova has highlighted how community eyecare services can help to bring down hospital waiting times.

Ms de Cordova, who is registered blind, visited healthcare provider CHEC to hear how it is working with the health service to deliver specialist ophthalmology services. 

She said: “With the NHS under immense pressure and ophthalmology waiting lists eye-wateringly high, it is vital that we look at how we prioritise and deliver eyecare, including through a National Eye Health Strategy, to get wait lists down and deliver better results for patients.”

CHEC’s deputy chief executive, Matt Currall, met the MP at the firm’s newest site in south London, due to open in February. With his colleagues, he explained that patients will be treated within four weeks of initial referral. 

Matt said: “It was a pleasure to welcome Ms de Cordova to our new Wandsworth hospital, and offer a real-time demonstration and insight into how our processes and support team help to reduce local waiting times for vital ophthalmology procedures.

“As an organisation, we echo Ms de Cordova’s stance on the importance of collaboration between all healthcare providers to ensure equity of access to high-quality care, because in so many cases, it proves to be both transformative for the patient and for struggling NHS services.”

Ms de Cordova chairs the all-party parliamentary group on eye health and visual impairment. She introduced a private members’ bill calling for a national eye health strategy in 2023 but it ran out of parliamentary time.