Human Resources & the Workforce of the Future – From Boomers to GenZ

1. Sunderland Eye Infirmary has adopted the widespread virtual glaucoma clinic model, enabling a high-volume review of low-risk glaucoma patients
2. Higher risk or more complex patients that require face-to-face consultation with a consultant leaves a cohort of patients’ dependant on the traditional clinic model which limits capacity
3. Patients are allocated by complexity to consultants, registrars, optometrists, or glaucoma nurses, creating additional pre-clinic admin workload to ensure they are matched to the appropriate practitioner
4. We developed a novel consultant circulating clinic model designed to address some of these inefficiencies. In this model, a single consultant oversees the entire clinic, rotating between 3 consultation rooms staffed by with practitioners of varying experience
5. A hybrid glaucoma service model combining virtual and modified face-to-face consultations improves efficiency and is well received by both patients and staff

Sunderland Eye Infirmary adapted a virtual glaucoma clinic model for low-risk patients. While this improved capacity, it created a downstream ripple effect, with a growing proportion of patients requiring face-to-face review, including higher-risk and more complex cases needing in-person consultations. This placed additional pressure on already limited consultant capacity and highlighted inefficiencies within traditional clinic structures, including pre-clinic triage burden, delays in consultant input, and reduced training opportunities.

To address these challenges, we developed a consultant-circulating clinic model for higher-complexity face-to-face care. A single consultant oversees the clinic while rotating between three consultation rooms staffed by 2 trainees and 1 optometrist. All clinicians work from a shared patient pool, with every patient reviewed by the consultant. The consultant rotates sequentially between rooms, ensuring continuous oversight and real-time decision-making without disrupting patient flow.

This hybrid model combines virtual clinics for low-risk patients with a modified face-to-face consultant- circulating structure for higher-risk cases. Evaluation demonstrated a threefold increase in throughput compared with traditional clinics, alongside universally positive feedback from both patients and staff (100% rating experience as good or very good and reporting improved efficiency). In conclusion, this hybrid model successfully increases capacity, improves workflow, and is well accepted by staff and patients.