Hospital to trial nurse administered eye injections

The increased prevalence of conditions like wet age-related macular degeneration, diabetic maculopathy and retinal vein occlusion has seen the number of injections at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) soar from 523 in 2013 to 6,508 last year.With the rising trend likely to continue, the hospital’s eye clinic would be unable to meet the increasing dand should the injections rain the sole responsibility of doctors. As a result, two nurses have already undergone training for the delicate procedure, with more likely to follow.“I was really excited to be given the opportunity to learn something new, and I believe that taking on bigger responsibilities is a trend for nurses to go into for the future,” Ms Chow Peck Foong, one of the two nurses who had already received training, told Singapore’s highest selling newspaper Straits Times.Training nurses to perform the procedure is expected to translate into less waiting time for patients, which is currently one to two weeks, however other hospitals and clinics are unlikely to adopt the same policy.A spokesperson from the Singapore National Eye Centre said nurse-administered IVT injections are a “very new initiative” which it does not do. In Australia, the administration of intravitreal injections is restricted to ophthalmologists.