Miss Clare Bailey, consultant ophthalmologist at the
Bristol Eye Hospital, is to receive the best practitioner of the
year award in the clinical services category from the Macular
Disease Society, for the untiring work she does with the visually
impaired. According to Mrs. Kitts, head of Bristols Macular
Disease support group, Clare Bailey is much appreciated by all her
patients at the Bristol Eye Hospital for both her professional
expertise and her warm and friendly personality. She knows
everybody by name despite the fact that she sees hundreds of
different patients a month. She makes you feel as though you are
the only person in the world when she is treating you, not to
mention the wonderful work she did in liasing with the local
Primary Care Trusts to obtain early funding for use of the drug
Lucentis, prior to the final NICE guidance recommending its
use. Miss Bailey is also implementing further patient
support at the hospital to lessen the anxieties of newly diagnosed
patients. The work she does is truly wonderful.
Miss Bailey and her team at the Bristol Eye Hospital currently
see and treat over 650 patients with wet macular degeneration per
month in a rapidly expanding service, as well as assessing many
others with dry macular degeneration and other retinal
disorders.
According to Miss Bailey, Its a great honour to have won this
award, and inspiring to have support for the service we run. We
have a fantastic team of imaging technicians, nurses, doctors and
administrative staff at Bristol Eye Hospital who make all of this
possible. We have designed our clinics to offer our patients a one
stop service where they are able to have their assessment and
treatment all in one visit. We also undertake research to
strive to improve the treatments for our patients. The
awards scheme began last year and due to its success The Macular
Disease Society, a national charity which supports people with MD,
has decided to make the awards an annual event. More than half a
million people are thought to be affected by MD in the UK, most of
them over the age of 65. MD destroys a persons central vision
meaning they cannot drive, read or recognise faces.
The Macular Disease Societys Chief Executive, Helen Jackman,
said: Clare Bailey and the team are outstanding professionals whose
work makes a tremendous difference to people with MD.
Clares patients appreciate the clinical and medical skills of
the team but they also value the compassion and kindness with which
the medical care is given. Clare also fights for her patients
and as a result her clinic was one of the first in the country to
give treatment for the wet form of MD. We are very grateful
to the team for all they do and we are delighted they have won an
award.
The winners will receive their awards at the Societys conference
in London on 25th September 2010. For details of local Macular
Disease Society (MDS) groups and meetings - or any other
information bout MD - please call the MDS helpline on 0845 241
2041.
