The Ophthalmology team at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust is celebrating after it was shortlisted for a prestigious award for its work with an innovative treatment which has proved life-changing for sufferers of a chronic eye disease.

The team has been shortlisted at the Health Service Journal (HSJ) Value in Healthcare awards 2015 in the Value and Improvement in Acute Service Redesign category for the management of Wet Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) with Oraya Therapy.

Oraya Therapy uses low-energy, highly targeted x-rays to treat Wet AMD and is intended as a one-time procedure. Solihull Hospital is the first hospital in the Midlands to introduce the trailblazing treatment and one of the first in the UK.

Ramesh Sivaraj, Clinical Director for Ophthalmology at the Trust, said: “We are delighted to be shortlisted for this award and it is testament to the great work the team has put in during the introduction of such an innovative piece of equipment as Oraya Therapy into the hospital.

“Not only does the therapy offer much more comfortable treatment for patients who previously had to have regular anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injections into the eye, it also limits the risk of eye infection and significantly reduces costs as the drugs used for injections are extremely expensive.”

Andrew Clements, Head of Operations at Solihull Hospital and Community Services, praised the ‘outstanding’ work of the Ophthalmology team and said innovation was vitally important for the Trust as a whole.

He said: “We are always looking at new technologies and advances in healthcare that we may be able to utilise at our hospitals to improve the care we give to our patients as well as providing that care in as efficient a way as possible and Oraya Therapy ticks all those boxes.

“I would like to thank everyone in the team who has contributed to this fantastic award nomination and helped to bring this exciting new treatment to Solihull Hospital.”

The team have now presented their entry to judges and will find out if they have won at a glittering award ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London in September.