Eye Casualty - Change in Opening Hours (from 19th January 2026)

Temporary changes to Eye Casualty services

From 19 January 2026, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust will be making temporary changes to Eye Casualty services. These changes will help us continue to provide care for urgent and sight-threatening eye conditions.

What’s changing

  • Eye Casualty telephone triage will be available every day from 8am to 8pm
  • Walk-in appointments will be limited to:
    • Weekdays: 8am to 4pm
    • Weekends: 8am to 12.30pm
  • Outside of these hours, patients will only be seen if they are:
    • Referred by A&E (ED), a GP, NHS 111, or a community optometrist, and
    • Have first been assessed through telephone triage

How to access the service

  • For patients:
    Please call the Eye Casualty patient triage line on 0115 875 4528 before attending.
  • For referrals from A&E, GPs, NHS 111 and community optometrists:
    Please call 0115 875 4539.

Important information

  • We will be prioritising urgent and sight-threatening emergencies
  • Non-urgent eye problems may be redirected to other local services
  • If your condition is not urgent, please contact your GP or local community optometrist in the first instance

We apologise for any inconvenience these temporary changes may cause and thank you for your understanding while we work to maintain safe and effective eye care services.

Eye Casualty Listening Exercise

Have Your Say: Eye Casualty Listening Exercise

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) is carrying out a listening exercise to better understand people’s experiences of accessing Eye Casualty services at Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC). Eye Casualty treats a wide range of urgent eye conditions, including sight-threatening emergencies that require prompt assessment and treatment.

Why are we undertaking this listening exercise?

Prior to 19 January 2026, Eye Casualty operated a walk-in service from 7am to 10pm, seven days a week. Outside these hours, patients were advised to contact the NHS 111 urgent care service or attend their local Emergency Department if required.

Since 19 January 2026, temporary changes have been introduced in response to increasing demand and workforce pressures. These arrangements were put in place to support the safe day-to-day delivery of the service whilst longer-term options are considered.

Current access arrangements

Eye Casualty walk-in service

  • Monday to Friday: 8am to 4pm
  • Weekends: 8am to 12.30pm

Eye Casualty attendance following telephone triage or professional referral

  • Weekdays: 4pm to 8pm
  • Weekends: 12.30pm to 8pm

Emergency Department

  • Daily: 8pm to 8am

These arrangements are temporary and are kept under regular review.

Your experience matters.
We want to understand how the temporary Eye Casualty arrangements are affecting patients, carers and local communities. Your feedback will help us identify what is working well, where improvements may be needed, and what should be considered as future options are developed.

How can you get involved?

You can share your views by:

To arrange a meeting or request further information, please contact:

Email: t.easom@nhs.net
Telephone: 07884 475059

Key dates

The listening exercise will run throughout September 2026 and will close on Wednesday 30 September 2026.

Accessible information

If you require this information in an alternative format, language, or need additional support to take part, please contact:

Email: t.easom@nhs.net
Telephone: 07884 475059

Poster for listening exercise

Eye Casualty Listening Exercise Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What conditions is Eye Casualty for?

A. Patients attend Eye Casualty for a wide range of eye-related conditions, including sudden vision loss, visual disturbances such as flashes or shadows, eye trauma, chemical splashes or foreign bodies in the eye, swelling, redness or infection, significant eye pain, and painful vision after an operation.

Q2. Why did Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) introduce the temporary changes to the Eye Casualty opening hours?

A. There were various issues with the service’s previous opening times which led to the introduction of these temporary changes.

Demand was unpredictable and often exceeded capacity. Annual attendances at QMC’s Eye Casualty department have significantly increased by 22% in four years. This increase in demand combined with limited staffing has meant longer waits for patients, posing an increased risk for those needing urgent tests or treatment.

In addition, because patients could previously walk into the centre from 7am until 10pm daily, staff often had to work well beyond the department’s formal opening hours.

The temporary changes were introduced to help ensure patients with the most urgent clinical needs can be prioritised, to provide clearer advice through telephone triage, and to support the safe and sustainable delivery of the service while longer-term options are considered.

Q3. What are the current walk-in opening hours for the NUH Eye Casualty?

A. NUH’s Eye Casualty, based at the Queen’s Medical Centre, is currently available for walk-in patients from 8am to 4pm Monday to Friday, and 8am to 12.30pm at weekends. After that, patients can still be seen by Eye Casualty if needed until 8pm but must first be telephone triaged or referred by services such as a GP or a community optometrist.

Q4. Can patients still be seen outside of the walk-in times?

A. Yes, from 4pm to 8pm on weekdays and from 12.30pm to 8pm on weekends, patients will be seen if they have first been triaged via the dedicated Eye Casualty telephone triage line, or are referred by services such as Emergency Department, a GP, NHS111, or a community optometrist (eye care professional), following triage.

Q5. What should patients do after 8pm and before 8am?

A. After 8pm and before 8am, patients should call NHS 111, who will advise on where best to seek help or book you in for an appointment. If it is an emergency, go to your local Emergency Department.

Q6. What is the telephone triage number?

A. The dedicated Eye Casualty telephone triage number is 01158 754528.

Q7. Why has telephone triage system been introduced?

A. The telephone triage system has been introduced to make best use of available staffing resources, prioritise urgent cases and reduce unnecessary waiting.

Q8. Are these temporary changes a cost-cutting exercise?

A. The temporary changes were not introduced to reduce the budget allocated to Eye Casualty. They were introduced because increasing demand and workforce pressures meant the previous model delivery was becoming difficult to sustain safely.

We want to continue to provide a safe, sustainable, and effective service whilst making best use of the staffing and financial resources available.

The temporary changes intend to support the patient experience by providing greater certainty around attendance times and supporting reassurance, through triage and advice.

Q9. Why don’t you just invest in more staffing and a larger unit to accommodate the growing demand?

A. We recognise that growing demand may require further investment in staffing and facilities, and this will be considered as part of planning the service’s future. In the meantime, the temporary arrangements help us use our current resources effectively, prioritise patients with the most urgent needs and provide a safer, more sustainable service. Feedback from the listening exercise will help shape the longer-term approach.

Q10. Who may be more affected by the temporary changes?

A. We recognise that the temporary arrangements may impact some groups more than others, such as working-age adults, parents and carers, individuals with limited flexibility during core hours, people experiencing homelessness, and some other groups identified through equality considerations.

The listening exercise will help to identify if the temporary changes have impacted these groups more and help to inform us about what we need to do in the future.  

Q 11. Does NUH intend to close Eye Casualty?

A. No, that is not the intention. We have made a temporary change to enable safer staffing and reduce patient waits, not a closure. Eye Casualty remains open, but patients now access the service through different routes, depending on the time of day and the urgency of their condition.

Q12. Is NUH proposing to make these changes permanent?

A. The current changes are temporary.

Before any decision is made, NUH want to hear from residents, patients, and stakeholders about their experience of the service and the temporary changes that are currently in place.

Q 13. Why is a listening exercise being conducted?

A. We want to understand people's experiences of accessing Eye Casualty, how the temporary arrangements have affected them, and what they think should be considered when planning future services.

Q14. Why are the public being asked about these changes now?

A. We want to ensure people have the opportunity to be involved in the planning and development of future proposals. The early listening exercise is intended to supplement what is already known, before any further decisions are made.

Q15. What sort of feedback is being sought?

A. We want to understand how people have accessed Eye Casualty previously, what conditions they presented with, their experience of the service, and whether treatment might have been possible in an alternative, safe setting.

Feedback will be gathered through a survey, outreach activity, targeted engagement with groups and communities, attendance or posters in clinical settings, and briefing sessions with stakeholders.

Q16. How will you ensure the listening exercise will be accessible to all?

A. Public information will be made accessible in line with the Accessible Information Standard, with accessible formats, translated versions where relevant, and equality monitoring of engagement activity.

Q17.  How long will the listening exercise run?

A. The listening exercise is expected to last from 1 September until 30 September 2026.

Eye Casualty

Eye Casualty is a service that treats patients with emergency eye problems. The service is based in the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Centre on A Floor at QMC campus.

Please contact the department before attending. This helps staff to manage waiting time and make sure that, if specialist tests are needed, patients attend when these tests can be carried out. As the service moves to main ED, from 10pm patients left in the department may be moved there, if staff are unable to provide adequate care before that time, hence contact us if you are attending.

Any conditions that have been ongoing for a long time need to be discussed with your GP. Some GPs are able to refer their patients to community eye doctors, where you can have a booked appointment closer to home.

If you think you have a minor eye problem (such as conjunctivitis or sties), or a query, please consider discussing the matter with your GP, pharmacist or community optician.

When attending Eye Casualty:

  • There are several clinics running at any time so do not be concerned if you are not seen in the order you have arrived.
  • If you are attending the department as a patient, please do not drive to the department as you may need eye drops that will prevent you from driving for a minimum of six hours afterwards.
  • You will be booked by the receptionist and wait to be triaged by a nurse.  This nurse will inform you of the plan, whether you need to be seen by a Nurse Practitioner, a Doctor or discharge you to the appropriate department.

Contact Us

Tel: 0115 924 9924 Ext: 82882