About the British Emergency Eye Care Society
Facilitate best practice in emergency eye care provision and promote excellence in patient care
Formalise training and career opportunities for all practitioners and encourage collaborative working practices
To provide a forum for the purpose of sharing resources, knowledge and experience
To establish wider recognition of Emergency Eye Care as a sub-speciality
To promote and support research in emergency eye care
The Committee
BEECS President
Felipe Dhawahir-Scala, MB BS FRCSEd LMS
Consultant Ophthalmologist and Vitreoretinal Surgeon.
Director of the Acute Ophthalmic Services.
Manchester Royal Eye Hospital
Vice-President
Amy-lee Shirodkar, MBChB MD FRCOphth
Consultant Ophthalmologist Emergency & General Ophthalmology
Wirral University Teaching Hospitals
Vice-President
Sarah Anderson, MBChB FRCOphth
Consultant ophthalmologist, emergency eye care lead
York Hospital
Secretary
Polly Dickerson, FRCOphth, MBBS, iBSc, PG Cert in education & simulation
Consultant in Oculoplastics and Emergency eye care
York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Treasurer
Ben While, MBBS MRCS(Eng) FRCOphth
Consultant Ophthalmologist
Wye Valley Trust, Hereford
Committee Member
Freddy Beer, MB BS BSc
Consultant Ophthalmologist
Portsmouth University Hospitals NHS Trust
Committee Member
Ian De Silva, FRCOphth MBChB MCOptom BSC (hons)
Consultant Ophthalmologist
University Hospitals Leicester NHS trust
Trainee Representative
Romeela Rana-Rahman, MB BS
Ophthalmology Specialty Registrar
Nursing Representative
Francine Walsh
Advanced Nurse Practitioner
Royal Bolton Hospital
Optometry Representative
Helen Wilson, MCOptom Dip OC Dip GLauc Dip Tp(IP)
Principal Optometrist Acute Services
Manchester Royal Eye Hospital
Optometry Representative
Ryan Desai, MCOptom Dip Tp(IP) Prof Cert Glauc
Clinical Lead Optometrist for Eye Casualty and Cornea
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire
Honorary Committee Members
Seema Verma, MB BS MD FRCOphth
Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon with special interest in Emergency Eye care St Thomas’ Hospital, London
and
Lead for Ophthalmology for South East London Acute Provider Collaborative
John Buchan, MB BS MD FRCOphth
Assistant Professor - International Centre for Eye Health, LSHTM
Consultant Ophthalmologist
Leeds Teaching Hospitals
Lucy Clarke, MBBS MRCS FEBO FRCOphth
Head of Eye Emergency Department, Clinical lead for Oculoplastics, Deputy head of department
Dilani Siriwardena, MBBS FRCOphth
Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon, Moorfields Deputy Medical Director and NHS London Region Clinical Director for Ophthalmology
British Emergency Eye Care Society Constitution & Aims
BEECS Constitution – updated version 2021.11.21
“The British Emergency Eye Care Society (BEECS) was founded in 2013 as a not-for-profit organisation with the aim of bringing together practitioners in the United Kingdom who provide acute ophthalmology services within their institutions. The inaugural meeting was held at the Royal College of Ophthalmologists on 18 October 2013.”
The aims of the Society are:
- To facilitate best practice in emergency eye care provision and promote excellence in patient care
- To establish wider recognition of Emergency Eye Care as a sub-speciality
- To provide a forum for the purpose of sharing resources, knowledge and experience.
- To promote and support research in emergency eye care.
- To formalise training and career opportunities for all ophthalmologists and encourage collaborative working practices
Committee Members
- Committee membership will be open to all NHS hospital eye service practitioners.
- Prospective members will submit their proposal of membership by email to the current BEECS president or Secretary and if eligible will be invited to join the committee as a guest member for months. At the end of this period, membership will be formalised if approved by a majority of the executive committee. Members of the committe are expected to attend a majority of committee meetings, or to stand down temporarily or permanently if unable to do so.
Executive Offices
- It was agreed that the society needed a small committee of executive officers. In the first instance these will be held for 3-5 years to facilitate continuity during the initial phase of the society.
- After this the officers will be held for a period of 2 years, renewable once.
- The office appointments of treasurer, secretary, president and vice president will be held by an Ophthalmologist on the specialist register.
- Prospective executive officers will be elected at the annual general meeting, having been nominated and seconded by any member (one of whom must be a committee member).
- Only members who are present at the AGM (i.e. not just committee members) will be eligible to cast a vote.
- President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary
Other committee members will include:
- Annual meeting organiser(s)
- Trainee Representative for two years (renewable)
- Optometry representative for two years (renewable)
- Nursing representative for two years (renewable)
For a BEECS meeting to be considered quorate, at least five committee members need to be present at least two of whom are executive committee members. For changes in the constitution, the majority of the committee has to be present including at least three executive committee members and the decision to change the constitution should be unanimous amongst those present, and there should be no known objections from the absent executive member.
Membership
Inclusion Criteria - It was agreed that members must be currently providing regular emergency eye care in a secondary care setting
This updated constitution was agreed unanimously by the BEECS committee including all executive committee members.
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