A NEW £500,000 state-of-the-art centre offering the very latest in eye imaging technology opens in Bradford today.

The Bradford Macula Centre, part of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, has moved out of the temporary building it used to share with the pain management clinic at St Luke’s Hospital in Trinity Road, to have its own space in the hospital grounds.

It means that patients with suspected wet macular degeneration, a condition that causes the loss of central vision usually in both eyes, will now be seen and treated for the condition more quickly.

The Trust estimates it could double the number of patients it can see coming into the clinic for help.

People who have the condition will be able to be referred directly to the new centre by their opticians via a fast-track referral system. Two long-attending macula service users, Levi Hall and Margaret Topham, will unveil the plaque at the opening ceremony, which will be attended by representatives from Bayer Pharmaceuticals, which funded a new Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scanner for the unit.

The sophisticated scanning system produces highly detailed images of the retina and is like an MRI or an x-ray.

As well as checking the eye’s health, it can also detect eye conditions including macular degeneration, diabetic eye disease and other eye disorders, said Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon, Helen Devonport .

She added: “This latest technology allows us to see flow in blood vessels in the retina without having to inject patients with dye. Previously abnormal blood vessels could only be detected on photos taken after patients received an intravenous injection of one or two dyes. So we are very grateful to Bayer for their support.”

The hospital trust hopes the clinic will be able to see twice as many patients because the number of clinics will be increased from five per week over two and a half days to having 10 clinics over five days. The Trust’s ophthalmology department is home to numerous worldwide clinical trials taking the lead in eye care research and has liaised with local optometrists about the opening of the new centre.

Bayer is a Life Science company with a history stretching back more than 150 years. It is dedicated to working collaboratively with the NHS to develop bespoke solutions to improve retinal services and the provision of care for patients.

Bayer Medical Director for Ophthalmology, Dr Jackie Napier said: “We are proud to support NHS trusts across the UK to improve care for people with sight-threatening eye conditions. We need to continue to work together as an ophthalmology community to overcome challenges in service delivery so we can preserve patients’ sight as much as possible.”