Primary Eyecare Services (PES) has appointed FDS Consultants as its new, long-term IT partner to integrate access to NHS systems into a single, easy-to-use platform.
The exclusive long-term agreement between PES and FDS Consultants will enable greater collaboration between primary care optical practices and the hospital eye service (HES), said PES in an announcement.
Functions and capabilities of the FDS Opera platform will include NHS number look-up, access to summary care records, eRS referrals and feedback from the HES, with further functionality to be added. Opera also includes routine functionality, including claims management and performance management of eyecare services.
The Opera platform is the technology enabler for the Covid-19 urgent eyecare service (CUES), which is currently live (or under mobilisation) in 37 clinical commissioning group areas. This new announcement expands this relationship, with FDS having a broader remit to incorporate all technology capability into a single platform.
PES, along with all its partner organisations, will transition to the new platform over the next six months – supported with staff training.
Dharmesh Patel, PES CEO, said: “Opera is a single, easy-to-use platform covering all providers and episodes of care including records, referrals and collaboration. It enables a revolution in collaboration allowing primary eyecare practices to work more closely with hospital eye services – which will ultimately deliver better patient care”.
“We are absolutely delighted to have been selected as the long-term partner for Primary Eyecare Services,” said FDS director of operations, Anne Lamb. “Our experience in referral management and extended services provision in dentistry is very transferable to the optical sector and we were able to rapidly develop the Opera platform to enable the CUES service. This has provided the foundation for a successful partnership with PES and we look forward to working in partnership with PES to transition the organisation and its partners onto the broader platform, and into the future as we add more functionality and capabilities.”
The current IT platform, OptoManager, provided by Cegedim Rx, will be phased out as users transition to the FDS Opera platform.
Gianpiero Celino from Cegedim Rx said: “We have enjoyed a longstanding relationship with PES and are of course disappointed that this will cease. We would like to thank them for the opportunity to participate in what has been a thorough and fair selection process and wish PES and its partner organisations all the best for the future”.
Dharmesh added: “On behalf of PES and all our partner LOCs and optical practices, I would like to thank the team at Cegedim Rx for all their support with OptoManager, a tool which has served the sector well for a decade. I would also like to recognise their highly professional participation in the recent selection process.”
FDS Consultants is a consortium of dental and medical NHS consultants based in the North West of England.