The government has invested £20 million to digitise optometry referrals from the high street.
Now, community-based optometrists will be able to refer patients directly and digitally into NHS hospital eye services - including NHS Online when it launches next year.
It is hoped this will reduce unnecessary referrals and mean fewer people need a separate appointment just to be passed on to a specialist. This should, in turn, save patients time and ease pressure of GPs.
The change will give very optical practice with an NHS contract in England access to the NHS e-Referral service and the National Care Record Service, with the aim of achieving 100% access by April 2028.
Health and Care Minister, Stephen Kinnock, said: "For too long, patients have faced unnecessary delays, avoidable trips to hospital and a fragmented system that hasn’t put their needs first. That changes from today.
"This £20 million investment will bring eye care closer to home, equipping high-street optometrists with the digital tools they need to refer patients faster and more accurately
"This is exactly the kind of modernisation that will help shift the NHS from a one-size-fits-all, hospital-first model to one that is community-based, preventative and truly fit for the future."
Elizabeth Wilkinson, Consultant ophthalmologist at Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We’ve been using a high volume, virtual pathway in Devon since 2021. At that time, we had about 4000 glaucoma patients in our backlog queue and nine month waits for new appointments.
"Using these transformational methods, we can now proudly say we have cleared our glaucoma backlog and see new patients within weeks. Our patients have much shorter 45-minute appointments, compared to two-three hours previously. They universally praise the new service saying, ‘this is the way the NHS should be run’.
"We believe that we should be able deliver ‘on time, every time’ and the GIRFT best practice guide will help other services to do exactly that - whatever the hospital size, location and current performance position."
