Fears over nurse eye assessments

Miss Holmes would not have lost any sight if a specialist had seen her earlier, her solicitors claim Continue reading the main storyRelated storiesNurses predict gloomy NHS futureCancer unit reopens after revampMental health nurse 'child risk' An eye specialist has voiced concerns about nurses making decisions that "go beyond their training", after a woman was left virtually blind in one eye.

Claire Holmes, 24, from Worcestershire, twice visited the minor injuries unit at Kidderminster hospital in 2008.

Nurses she saw prescribed ointments, but they did not refer her case.

Ophthalmologist Paul Chell said by the time she was referred she had lost 95% of the sight in her eye. The trust has now changed its referral policy.

E-mail warning

Miss Holmes wore contact lenses, which some doctors believe can increase the risk of developing a corneal ulcer that destroys vision, as the lenses can scratch the cornea.

Paul Chell, the clinical director of ophthalmology at Kidderminster General Hospital at the time, sent an e-mail to the chief executive John Rostill in which he said the case was indefensible.

The e-mail, obtained by the BBC, claims that Miss Holmes was the second eye patient who had been put at risk in two weeks in September 2008.