Spalding charity's final donation helps fun specialist eye equipment for hospital

Patients will be able to have specialist eye exams at the Johnson Hospital after a charity helped fund a new piece of equipment.

Pennygate Patient Link was wound down last year – but before it folded it was able to hand about £70,000 out to good causes in the area.

That funding pot allowed for the purchase of a visual fields machine – costing more than £33,500 – to be installed at the hospital in Spalding Road, Pinchbeck.

The machine is used to measure a person’s entire visual field – the range of what you can see above, below, and on either side of you while your gaze is fixed on a central point directly in front of you.

It can identify blind spots, as well as loss of peripheral
vision.

Sally Brown, outpatients department clinical team lead for Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust, said: “We are very grateful to the volunteers from Pennygate Patient Link and the public who have generously chosen to support our local NHS services.

“This purchase will allow us to continue to develop and grow the range of ophthalmology services available locally in Spalding, meaning care remains available closer to home.”

Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust deputy clinical team lead Tracey Hallam showed off the visual fields machine to Pennygate Patient Link chairman Renzo Gheradi and vice chairman Carol Modd.

On behalf of Pennygate Patient Link, Angela Newton said: “It was fantastic to come to the hospital and see the Visual Fields machine as this is money raised for the community going back to the community.”

The GP service at the Johnson Hospital was established when the Pennygate Surgery closed its doors in 2018.