Edinburgh Eye Pavilion: Patient warns dispersing services could be 'catastrophic' for some

Sylvia Paton has had complex eye conditions all her life and has attended the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion regularly ever since it opened 55 years ago this month.

She is full of praise for the consultants and staff who have treated her over the years and helped to preserve as much of her sight as possible.

Sylvia Paton says having services together on one site is essential

But as planning continues for the building to close from the end of October for emergency repairs to the plumbing system, she is fearful of what the future holds for her and the thousands of other patients who depend on the care it provides.

Services are set to be sent to five different sites across Lothian during the closure. Inpatient services and day surgery will go to St John’s Hospital, Livingston; the Acute Referral Clinic, which deals with urgent cases, will be housed in the Lauriston Building, just across the road from the Eye Pavilion; and the other sites involved are the new Sick Kids hospital, the Department of Clinical Neurosciences and East Lothian Community Hospital.

But dispersing the services could prove "catastrophic" for some patients, said Ms Payton. Having all the eye services together in one place was an essential part of the care, she insisted, because it allowed maximum co-operation and speedy dealings between different departments.

She said she had to attend several different clinics and can be sent from any of them to the Pavilion's imaging centre to have pictures taken of her eye to help the doctors determine the treatment required.

"I go to the imaging centre along the corridor and the image goes back to the appropriate consultant's computer and I go back to that clinic and they decide what they're going to do.

"I've been in the position where that has happened and I have been in surgery the following day as an emergency.

"It frightens me what is going to happen with this closure - there is only one imaging service, where is it going to be? Am I going to have to be told I need imaging, make an appointment for that, then once the results are back, wait six weeks to go back and see the consultant? And am I going to lose my vision during that time?"

She said at the beginning of this year she had had a problem with her cornea and had to contact the Eye Pavilion for help. She managed to be seen, even though it was during the Christmas-New Year holidays, was sent for imaging and then had to have an operation.

"The consultant needed the imaging to know how he was going to treat it. If he hadn't been able to have all the information at hand, he would not have been able to save my sight because he would not have known what was going on.

"Or if I had to wait three weeks to go and get imaging and then wait for an appointment to go back and see him, he wouldn't have been able to save my vision."

She fears dispersal builds delays into the system with potentially drastic consequences for patients and their sight.

"If everything is not all in one place then the doctors and the patients don't have access to all the different services. If they disperse services, how long is it going to take to get patients between all the services? Delays for people needing eye treatments can be catastrophic."

Jim Crombie, deputy chief executive of NHS Lothian, has said great care is being taken to keep disruption to a minimum, but he has acknowledged there is likely to be some knock-on impact, including on waiting times. He said patient and staff safety was always the health board’s chief consideration.