Specialist Orthoptist

Frimley, England, United Kingdom

5/16/2025

Job Overview

DIMENSIONS OF JOB:

The post will be based at Frimley Park Hospital, although the post-holder will be expected to work at any of the hospitals where eye services are provided by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust. A car is therefore essential.

• To provide Orthoptic services as an autonomous practitioner across all Frimley Health sites.
• To assess, diagnose and manage patients referred to the Orthoptic Department.
• Works as an active member of a multi-disciplinary team.
• To contribute to a comprehensive quality Orthoptic assessment service for patients referred to the Orthoptic Department.
• To be responsible for the assessment, diagnosis, formulation and conduction of treatment programmes for a full range of Orthoptic cases both in- and out-patients
• To mentor and or lead the orthoptic team.
  
  

Main duties of the job

Purpose Of Job

To be responsible for the Orthoptic assessment, diagnosis and management of patients referred to the Orthoptic Department from various departments, including paediatrics, accident and emergency, maxillo-facial department, endocrinology and neurology.

To formulate relevant discharge plans and onward referral. This patient group comprises all cases of ocular motility defects and amblyopia. (reduced vision with no pathological cause), complex congenital and acquired cases, including neurological abnormalities, genetic disorders and associated ocular abnormalities.

To be responsible as an autonomous practitioner for the evaluation of visual acuity in referrals from the specialist services. This includes infants with strabismus (squint) and amblyopia, congenital or developmental abnormalities, genetic referral, adult illiterates, children and adults with significant learning difficulties as well as acute ocular motility defects in both children and adults.

To be responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring individual Orthoptic treatment plans / care pathways for patients of all ages using advanced clinical reasoning and evidence based practice under minimal supervision.

To Undertake extended roles such as Low Visual Aid clinics, Stable glaucoma clinics, Glaucoma Assessment clinics, IOP and Compliance clinics and Pre-Op cataract assessment including biometry

Working for our organisation

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust is committed to being an inclusive and disability confident employer and has been awarded the Gold for the Armed Forces Employment Recognition Scheme. We provide first class development opportunities for all staff and have a wide range of professional, management and leadership, and clinical skills training available.

Here at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, we know how important it is to have a healthy work life balance; this benefits not only individuals but the patients we care for too.

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service and its users.

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Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

To be responsible for the Orthoptic assessment, diagnosis and management of patients referred to the Orthoptic Department from various departments, including paediatrics, accident and emergency, maxillo-facial department, endocrinology and neurology.

To formulate relevant discharge plans and onward referral. This patient group comprises all cases of ocular motility defects and amblyopia. (reduced vision with no pathological cause), complex congenital and acquired cases, including neurological abnormalities, genetic disorders and associated ocular abnormalities.

To be responsible as an autonomous practitioner for the evaluation of visual acuity in referrals from the specialist services. This includes infants with strabismus (squint) and amblyopia, congenital or developmental abnormalities, genetic referral, adult illiterates, children and adults with significant learning difficulties as well as acute ocular motility defects in both children and adults.

To be responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring individual Orthoptic treatment plans / care pathways for patients of all ages using advanced clinical reasoning and evidence based practice under minimal supervision.

There is the option to patriciate in extended roles such as Low Visual Aid clinics, Stable glaucoma clinics, Glaucoma Assessment clinics, IOP and Compliance clinics and Pre-Op cataract assessment including biometry

Person specification

Qualification

Essential criteria

• Diploma or Degree of British Orthoptics
• Registration with Health Professional Council
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Management qualification or working towards
  
  

Skills and Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Excellent communication skills
• Good leadership skills
• Team worker
• Good time management and organisational skills
• Computer literate and able to utilise programmes like word and excel
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Clinical Teaching qualification
• Experience in orthoptic extended roles
  
  

Specail Requirements

Essential criteria

• Car Driver
• Knowledge of current NHS trends which influence service provisions
• Clinical teaching experience
• Evidence of on-going training and development
• Evidence of professional development
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Competences in Extended roles
  
  

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust (FHFT) has an outstanding reputation and a proud record of achievement. As a well performing, well led and ambitious Foundation Trust, we have exciting times ahead of us. We have an ongoing commitment to improving the health and care services for the 900,000 people we serve across Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey and south Buckinghamshire.

We are proud of the ambitions laid out in our strategy, Our Future FHFT, including our vision to be a leader in health & wellbeing, delivering excellence for our communities.

We continue to invest in our services and facilities, including a £10 million upgrade to the hospital maternity unit as well as £49m major new Emergency Assessment Centre on our Wexham Park site. The opening of a brand new £100m state of the art hospital which replaced the existing hospital facility at Heatherwood and are planning to invest further in diagnostics and inpatient capacity at Frimley Park.

We have also made significant investment in our quality improvement and digital programmes to support our vision and we will ensure that we achieve our aim of providing the highest quality healthcare to our patients. Our new EPR – Epic – went live in June and we are already beginning to reap the benefits of this ambitious investment.

Our three core values, and the behaviours that support them, guide everything we do and set out what we expect of our staff in the way they treat patients, visitors, service users and each other, Committed to Excellence, Working Together and Facing the Future.

Apply online now