Collaborative Eye Care Award Winners 2025

The New Optometrist is happy to announce that the winner of this year’s Collaborative Eye Care Award (CECA) to recognize projects that are closing the gap between UK optometry and ophthalmology is the Community Ophthalmic Link (COL)!

A joint project between Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Gloucestershire Hospital Eye Services (HES), the Local Optical Committee (LOC), and Blueworks Ophthalmic Imaging Management Solutions, the initiative connects all community optometrists to the ophthalmology records of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NHSFT), allowing real-time access to all imaging data – including full volumetric OCT and visual fields – along with clinical outcomes.

Since its launch, COL has integrated into all 60-plus optometry practices in Gloucestershire. It has so far successfully avoided over 2,500 unnecessary referrals and enabled thousands of patients to be managed in primary care. The project is alleviating NHS and waiting list pressures and enriching the patient experience, as well as exemplifying the power of collaboration in improving eye care delivery.

At this year’s 100% Optical (March 1-3), The New Optometrist had the pleasure of meeting members of the project team and presenting the award to Scott Vallance, Head of Ophthalmic Imaging at Gloucester Hospitals NHSFT, and Tony Burke, BlueWorks UK Manager.

Look out for an interview with Scott and Tony soon!

In the meantime, we’d like to thank everyone that took the time to apply for this year’s CECA. The standard, as usual, was dizzyingly high – it is heartening to see so much work being done to drive real change in the UK eye care space!