Delays in routine appointments for people with chronic eye conditions (such as glaucoma and medical retinopathy) represent a longstanding challenge in the English National Health Service (NHS). Such delays can result in loss of eyesight, with significant implications for individuals and the wider economy.

To help address such delays, in late 2021 an innovative community-based clinic was launched in a North London shopping centre. The clinic (Project HERCULES) was designed by a team of clinicians and researchers with the aim of ensuring eye patients underwent their tests quickly and safely, with minimal waits between tests. It operated as a ‘virtual clinic’, with tests conducted at the clinic, then reviewed asynchronously by specialist clinicians based in nearby eye hospitals.

A new paper published in Eye (May 2026) provides important insights on how patients and staff experienced this innovative, community-based eye clinic (1). The analysis drew on interviews with a range of stakeholders (including patients attending the clinic, staff who worked in the clinic, and specialist clinicians who reviewed eye tests remotely) and observations of eye tests being delivered in the clinic. 

The paper reported that, overall, patients and staff had highly positive experiences of the clinic. Patients highlighted the efficiency of appointments, with minimal waiting between tests, and the friendliness and professionalism of the technicians conducting tests. Technicians described feeling valued by the service, e.g. due to being involved in ongoing service developments. Both patients and staff felt that community-based clinics of this kind would play a valuable role in ophthalmology services in the future. Importantly, the analysis was carried out while the service was still developing, meaning that several issues raised (e.g. around communication and career development) were addressed as the service became more established.

Lead author, Dr Angus I G Ramsay, commented, “Patient and staff experiences play important roles in the impact of healthcare services. Our analysis demonstrates that staff and patients alike had very positive experiences of this innovative community-based diagnostic clinic. Further, we highlight issues that service planners should keep in mind when planning services of this kind, including patient communication and transport links, and staff engagement and support. Lessons from this work may help ensure that similar services can be developed in ways that support similarly positive patient and staff experiences.”

This paper was written as part of a wider independent mixed methods evaluation of Project HERCULES, which was conducted so that the learning from this research-driven clinic would support evidence-based innovation in other settings. Analyses conducted included a quantitative analysis demonstrating that the clinic was associated with significant reductions in appointment delays and rapid removal of the patient backlog (2), and a discrete choice experiment, which analysed stakeholder preferences for services of this kind (3).