Last I wrote to you was at the beginning of March and the idea of coronavirus was only just coming into our sights – if only we had had a crystal ball at that time. Since then our professional, and for some of us, our personal lives have been turned upside down and we are facing new challenges every day.
We have seen orthoptists deployed to other specialist areas across our Health Board and others remaining in Orthoptics and ophthalmology to support patients that still require our specialist care – a massive well done to you all and for all you have done to support each other through the acute phases and continue to now as we move onto the recovery and redesign phases.
We have all had time to reflect on our clinical loads and our patient care, although still challenging it has allowed us an opportunity to re-evaluate the way we work. In Scotland, the digital era has been forced forward as a new way working with an increase in more virtual clinics with attend anywhere and telephone consults which I foresee becoming more commonplace as we move forwards.
We had to cancel our local area meetings but BIOS has provided opportunities for us to continue learning and the TU training was well attended, the next date is the 4th December so sign up if you can. In Scotland NES has provided webinars for various topics and in particular for attend anywhere, keep a look out for these and share as they are particularly useful.
Moving forward we are aiming to provide a virtual CPD day in March (postponed from beg Nov) and we are still aiming for the Conference for June 2021 but with a virtual look if need be. We are aiming for the AGM to be a part of this too.
There is not much more I can add other than to say keep looking out for each other and for yourselves, BIOS is here to support as best we can but supporting each other locally is vital as we still continue to develop our “new normal”. As always if you need anything from us get in touch. Take care, stay safe.
Angela Carlin
BIOS Trustee for Scotland
