Clinics and wards used by the Department of Ophthalmology

Children who attend the Department of Ophthalmology will often have a number of appointments scheduled with designated appointment times.

On arrival at the hospital you should check in with the receptionists at the front desk in outpatients. When you have been directed to the department in outpatients you should also check in at the nurses’ station.

You will be asked to take a seat and wait for your child’s name to be called.

When the doctors and support staff call your child’s name it may not be in the same order that is listed on your appointment letter. Do not worry about this. You will not miss any appointment you have within the Department of Ophthalmology.

During busy clinics it may seem that you have been waiting a long time between the different investigations you are having. If you have another appointment in the hospital or have to be away at a specific time please make this known to the staff at the outpatient desk.

The community link service provides advice and support to families and children with severe visual impairments.

When a child is first diagnosed with a severe visual impairment, parents can often feel isolated and bewildered, having to cope with a host of mixed emotions.

For the parents, it is inevitable that the diagnosis will give rise to a range of concerns and issues: families need information and someone to talk to.

Our community link team consists of qualified nurses, working as part of the ophthalmology team, in a supportive role for the children and their families. They can help with the contact parents may need to have with other organisations.

For instance, helping parents in their initial relationships with health and social services, with schools and visual impairment services.

The service is run by qualified nurses, working as part of the ophthalmology team, in a supportive role for the children and their families. They can help with the contact parents may need to have with other organisations: for instance, helping parents in their initial relationships with Health and Social Services, schools and visual impairment services.

Miss Paula Thomas works as the ECLO at GOSH, facilitating sight impairment registration, as well as contacting schools and the local teachers for the visually impaired (QTVI) on behalf of families and children with vision problems. She provides counselling and advice to families with new diagnoses and functions as a contact point between families and clinical staff.

Mr Will Moore

Mr Richard Bowman

Dual Sensory Clinic (with Audiology)

Ophthalmic electrophysiology obtains objective measurements of the function of the retina and visual pathways connecting the retina to the visual cortex in the brain. The service is run Dr Alki Liasis and Dr Dorothy Thompson who are both world-renown electrophysiologists. The service at Great Ormond Street is recognised nationally and receives more than 2000 patients a year. Dr Liasis also runs the Great Ormond Street Eye Movement Laboratory.

Miss Gurpreet Saini is the head of the Orthoptic service. Orthoptics is the study of eye movements and visual development. Many clinical appointments will involve meeting an orthoptist prior to seeing your Consultant. The orthoptist will measure your child’s vision and perform a number of supplementary tests to assess strabismus (squint), as well as how well the eyes work together. They often advise on patching and amblyopia (lazy eye) treatment.

The optometry service at Great Ormond Street is run by Miss Lynne Speedwell. Our Optometrists work alongside the Consultants and Clinical Fellows in our NHS clinics and provide a full glasses and contact lens service post infant cataract service. We also have a dispensing optician who works onsite to fit and dispense glasses for all our patients.

The Psychology service for Ophthalmology at Great Ormond Street is run by Dr Lisa Brosh. More information about Psychological services at GOSH can be found here