An eye specialist has been appointed to a national role in improving patient treatment and care.

Dr Liz Wilkinson, a consultant ophthalmologist at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, has been appointed as one of the national clinical leads for ophthalmology.

This is part of the national NHS programme, Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT), which aims to improve patient treatment and care.

Ms Wilkinson is also the Trust clinical director for the Centre of Excellence for Eyes at the Nightingale Hospital in Exeter.

She has been with the Trust for 12 years and was previously the NHSE clinical lead in ophthalmology for the South West and NHS Devon Integrated Care Board.

Ms Wilkinson said that she is delighted to have been appointed.

She said: "We will be focusing on the strategy for ophthalmology in England and this will give the Trust a leading role in improving eye care in Devon.

"The Trust and patients across Devon will also gain from being so closely involved with GIRFT and seeing how other Trusts implement best practices and innovative care.

"The work we are doing with the Centre of Excellence for Eyes at the Nightingale already reflects how we are working towards that."

She joins consultant ophthalmologists Lydia Chang and Jon Bhargava to lead GIRFT’s ophthalmology work.

Together, the three clinical leads will provide focused support to Trusts with the greatest opportunity for outpatient and inpatient improvement.

This includes increasing capacity for high volume any complexity cataract operating lists.

Through the GIRFT Further Faster programme, the team will also focus on identifying best practices for elective recovery, particularly sharing failsafe and innovative ways to develop outpatient capacity, such as diagnostics virtual review clinics.

Professor Tim Briggs, GIRFT chair and national director for clinical improvement and elective recovery for NHS England, said: "Cataract surgery is the single most common surgical procedure in the NHS, so it is vital that GIRFT’s work to free up capacity continues at pace, enabling more patients to be seen and treated effectively and in a timely way.

"Liz has a wealth of leadership and transformational experience from her years at the Centre of Excellence for Eyes, and I look forward to seeing how her expertise and knowledge can be shared with Trusts to support elective recovery nationally."

Ms Wilkinson completed her MA in medicine at the University of Cambridge before undergoing physician training at St Thomas’s Hospital.

She was the second female president of ophthalmology at the Royal Society of Medicine and is the immediate past president of the British Association of Retinal Screening.

Ms Wilkinson was instrumental in the opening of the South Molton Eye Centre.