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We are pleased to announce that the CUES Telemedicine pathway is now live across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS (excluding the East Staffordshire locality).
With effect from Monday 3 April 2023, we will be introducing a single point-of-access telephone number which patients experiencing urgent eyecare issues can call to make contact with our CUES telemedicine service.
The service is only for patients who are registered with a GP in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent (except East Staffordshire). It is also only for patients with recent onset, urgent eyecare concerns and cannot see people with non-urgent or long standing eye conditions. To signpost patients into CUES, please ask them to call the following local rate number instead of directing patients to a local optical practice:
0333 015 0122
(Line open Monday to Saturday, from 9.00am to 5.00pm, closed Bank Holidays)
This development marks a fundamental change in our service delivery, so please ensure that all your practice staff are made aware of it, and that they keep the new telephone number to hand.
On calling this line, patients can expect to be triaged and then to be asked to attend either a remote telemedicine consultation or a face-to-face appointment, with one of our local CUES optometrists.
For any practices that DO NOT provide CUES please direct patients to this phone number rather than asking them to self-present at practices.
For CUES provider Practices:
Patients with urgent eye care needs may still present directly to a CUES practice. Practices should follow protocols and carry out the eligibility and triage screening process, allocating suitable patients a CUES appointment (either telemedicine or F2F) within a suitable timescale where possible.
If the practice is unable to triage/accommodate a patient within a suitable timeframe, the patient may be redirected to the Telemedicine Service.
Patients directed to the Telemedicine Service are not automatically referred back to the referring practice in cases where a face-to-face assessment is required. Appointments are allocated to the practice closest to the patient’s home address with availability within the specified timescale.
The PES referral hub will call CUES providers if a F2F assessment is required. If your practice is able to provide a F2F appointment within the specified timescale requested by the PES telemedicine optometrist, the patient telemedicine notes will be transferred via OPERA and you will need to contact the patient to confirm the time and date of the appointment.
If a Practice wants to provide CUES, what should they do?
Practices that wish to deliver the CUES service should follow the guidance linked here to request to add it to their OPERA profile.
Not signed up to OPERA?
If the Practice has not registered on the OPERA platform to date, please read the guide linked here and onboard your practice. The Practice will need to complete this process and be approved by PES. Once this has been completed, they too will gain access to the service module and can then register their practitioners to enable service delivery using this guidance.
Please see attached a service summary, guidance documentation and a printable CUES patient leaflet which we have created to help you promote the new service to your patients and the wider local healthcare system.
If you or your colleagues have any queries about the service change, please email your questions to: hello@referral.support
Kind regards
Primary Eyecare Services
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