Specialist Optometrist - Bedford

Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Specialist Optometrist - Bedford

The closing date is 05 February 2026

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Hospital Optometrist working with Moorfields Eye Hospital, Bedford. The role involves working within the paediatric community eye service at the Liverpool Road Health Centre, Luton.

Main duties of the job

To personally deliver a range of specialised face to face and optometric care and extended role optometric care, clinical audit & teaching. To support the development of extended roles for optometrists within Moorfields. In conjunction with the medical staff to support the development of, and to help deliver, shared care for ophthalmic conditions.

About us

This post is based at our Liverpool Road health centre associated with our Bedford site.

At Moorfields, we provide more than just an excellent career and great colleagues to work with. We also offer:

• Opportunity to join the NHS Pension Scheme
• Free 24/7 independent counselling service
• Learning and development opportunities
• Easy and quick transport links
• A range of attractive benefits and discounts
• Access to Blue Light Card and other NHS Discount Schemes
• Free Pilates classes
• Full support and training to develop your skills
• Flexible working friendly organisation

And so much more! To see the full range of benefits we offer please see our Moorfields benefits document.

Job responsibilities

To personally deliver a range of specialised optometric care and extended role optometric care, clinical audit & teaching.

To support the development of extended roles for optometrists within Moorfields.

In conjunction with the medical staff to support the development of, and to help deliver, shared-care for ophthalmic conditions.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

To personally deliver a range of specialised and extended optometric care, clinical audit and teaching.

2. Clinical

To provide a wide range of optometric services, which can include:

To work closely with the optometry team to provide a wide range of optometric services, at a hospital or community site, which may include:

• b) Working in an 'extended role' capacity in a variety of ophthalmology clinics which can include Medical Retina, Glaucoma, Cataract or Acute Services.
• c) Working in extended role outside ophthalmology clinics, i.e. without medical support in clinic, e.g. Diabetic slit lamp clinics, Childrens Vision Clinics.
• d) Triage of referral letters both routine and urgent and management of shared care cataract referrals
• e) Supervising junior staff in their clinical roles

To undertake specialist clinical activity; this activity requires regular use of a range of advanced clinical techniques requiring dexterity and concentration. These clinics involve responsibility for clinical decision-making with support from consultants and the provision of specialised diagnosis, management, care and education of patients.

To provide a clinical opinion or obtain a clinical opinion from consultant colleagues to optometric and non-optometric colleagues on the management of patients.

3. Clinical Governance

Responsibility in conjunction with the consultants for the systematic and critical analysis of the quality of work carried by optometrists.

To initiate and participate in clinical audit.

To help identify and develop service standards and audit for optometrists.

To personally participate in continuing professional education and development (as required by the General Optical Council and through appraisal as part of role).

4. Management

To assist the Lead Optometrist to manage Optometry Services

To help develop systems, clinical governance, processes, guidelines and training to establish and maintain extended role clinics & shared care services.

To be able to use appropriate IT including electronic patient records for benchmarking, audit and clinical uses.

5. Teaching and Development

Contribute to the delivery of optometric teaching and supervision to other ophthalmic professionals.

6. Research and Development

To contribute to clinical research or assessment programmes.

To present audit/research findings at relevant scientific meetings.

To contribute to publishing research/audit findings in peer-reviewed journals.

7. Policy

To support the Clinical Director, the Principal Optometrist & the Head of Optometry in the development and implementation of policies and procedures for Optometrists.

Person Specification GOC Registration

• GOC Registration

BSc(Hons) Optometry or equival

• BSc(Hons) Optometry or equivalent
• FCOptom, MSc or equivalent specialist higher qualifications
• Experience of managing complex patients
• Higher qualifications

Clinical governance

• Knowledge and experience of clinical governance

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust