The Single Point of Access, hosted by Moorfields Eye Hospital, won the Acute Sector Innovation of the Year award at the HSJ Awards 2024 - the annual initiative to share success stories across the health and social care sector, creating a collaborative platform to help inspire and shape the future of the NHS.
The SPoA service represents a partnership between Moorfields, Royal Free London, North Central London (NCL), the Local Optical Committee Support Unit (LOCSU) and NHS England, and has processed over 29,000 referrals in NCL and parts of North East London (NEL). The team were presented with the award on 21 November 2024 by Sam Roberts, chief executive at the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and comedian Dara Ó’Briain.
"It's such an honour to win the Acute Sector Innovation of the Year award, and credit to the amazing team between Moorfields and the Royal Free who have worked so hard to build a service that's changing eyecare from such tiny beginnings just two years ago,” said Peter Thomas, executive director of digital discovery and CCIO at Moorfields. “We've shown that by collaborating across trusts, professions, organisations and sectors we can drive real change and help so many patients to receive better, faster care.”
Community optometrists can send referrals directly to the SPoA, which routes them to the patient’s preferred hospital for triage and management. This new pathway improves referral processing, patient safety, and reduces patient journey time from point of referral to hospital appointment, as well as burden on GPs. It ensures that referrals get to a suitable ophthalmology provider as quickly as possible, factoring in patient journey, patient preference and availability.
The SPoA team see the referral process as a key opportunity to improve patient experience and develop a closer relationship between all professionals and organisations delivering eye care to patients. With that, the service goes beyond the traditional SPoA which focuses on referral distribution, facilitating service innovations all along the referral pathway to improve access to hospital resources.
Congratulations to the SPoA team, who mark this prestigious accomplishment after being highly commended in the HSJ Patient Safety Awards earlier this year for Best Use of Integrated Care and Partnership Working in Patient Safety.
For more information on the SPoA, please visit: https://www.moorfields.nhs.uk/for-health-professionals/referring/single-point-of-access