A MESSAGE FROM THE ESCRS PRESIDENT
26 March 2020
Dear Colleagues Today we talk to our friends and ESCRS Board members in the United Kingdom. The UK has a very large population and a very well-known healthcare system. Our colleagues have shared with us the measures that the NHS is taking to deal with this crisis. Our colleague, Paul Rosen, chairman of the board of trustees of ESCRS, reminds us that we must see the opportunity in this terrible situation. This will include people showing their leadership skills, working at the limits of their comfort zone and stretching their personal and clinical skills. Inevitably our thoughts turn to the possibilities around convening our ESCRS Congress in October. The ESCRS leadership is carefully monitoring the current situation. We have received over 2,500 abstracts for the Amsterdam Congress and continue with planning for our October meeting. Of course, we will be guided by any recommendations from the authorities as the meeting time gets closer. The safety of our delegates, sponsors and all our stakeholders are most important to us. Any changes that may impact our upcoming congress will be posted on the ESCRS website and on social media. As always stay safe and well.
Prof. dr Rudy MMA Nuijts
ESCRS President
SUCCESS IN FIGHTING COVID-19 IN UK WILL RELY ON TEAMWORK
Paul Rosen FRCS FRCOphth is a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital and Chairman of the Trustees of ESCRS and a former President of ESCRS. Speaking to EuroTimes, Mr Rosen stressed the need for adaptability and new working practices and said residents had the opportunity for a new and very different form of training in these challenging times. “Success in dealing with COVID-19 will depend on great teamwork – every member, from the most senior surgeon to the newest administrator has a vitally important role to play. Without the support of the ‘troops’ on the ground we will not achieve success,” said Mr Rosen.
UK OPHTHALMOLOGISTS NEED CONTINUED INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
Bruce Allan MD, is a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, England. In a Q&A with EuroTimes, Dr Allan talked about how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting patient care, ophthalmology research and training in the UK. Maintaining a positive outlook, he shared ideas about the opportunities that the crisis is creating. “My hope is that being forced to look at what we really need to keep doing in order to practice safely will help us to look after our patients more efficiently in the future. For example, although we are using virtual consultations at this stage, we are also looking at further telemedicine solutions to help us reach our patients. For UK medicine more widely, if ever we needed a
reminder of the need for continued international collaboration, this is it,” he said.
UK OPHTHALMOLOGISTS WILL TRY TO MAINTAIN SERVICE FO R PATIENTS AT HIGH RISK FOR VISUAL LOSS WITHOUT TREATMENT
The Royal College of Ophthalmologists in the UK is recommending that all routine ophthalmic surgery and routine visits should be postponed whether in HNHS hospitals or private clinics. “But we will try to maintain a service for patients who are at high risk for visual loss without treatment,” said RCOpth President, Michael Burdon MD FRCS. “What we want to do now is protect our patients both from the virus and from severe visual loss, and it is challenging but we’re up for it," he said.
UK STUDY SAYS SUPPRESSION OF COVID-19 COULD TAKE 12-to-18 MONTHS
A study from Imperial College London, UK, has said that the only way to suppress the spread of COVID-19 is to enforce social distancing for the entire population, isolate all cases, demand quarantines of entire households where anyone is sick and close all schools and universities for 12-to-18 months, until a vaccine is available. In the paper, which is thought to have had a major influence on UK Government policy in fighting the virus, the Imperial College research team says two fundamental strategies are possible: (a) mitigation, which focuses on slowing but not necessarily stopping epidemic spread – reducing peak healthcare demand while protecting those most at risk of severe disease from infection, and (b) suppression, which aims to reverse epidemic growth, reducing case numbers
to low levels and maintaining that situation indefinitely.
INTERVIEW WITH UKISCRS PRESIDENT
Philip Bloom is President of the UK & Ireland Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgeons (UKISCRS), chairman of the International Glaucoma Association (IGA) and trustee and board member of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) He told EuroTimes about the present situation as he sees it, and what may follow in the longer term. “The whole country is very much pulling together in a way that we might have thought was unlikely in the past. I think that it's encouraging how people are working together, pulling together and long may that continue.”
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