Ophthalmology (Eye Department)

The Eye department is the largest provider of specialist hospital Ophthalmology services in the Yorkshire region.

We’ve moved!

The main Eye clinic at St James’s University Hospital has now moved from its previous site on the Ground floor in Chancellor’s wing into a new purpose-built department on Level 4 (the first floor) in Gledhow wing, St James’s.

We closed the eye department at Chancellors wing on the afternoon of Friday 9 December 2022 and reopened in our new department at Gledhow wing on Monday 12 December 2022.

How to get to the new Eye clinic in Gledhow wing 

The new Eye Outpatients location in Gledhow wing can be reached easily from the old location in Chancellor’s wing by following the outdoors route as shown in yellow on the photo.

Directions from the main entrance of Gledhow wing

  1. On arrival at Gledhow wing main entrance, head straight through the automatic doors and follow the short corridor directly ahead.
  2. Go through into the central lift area. Take the lift to level 4 (it’s the next floor up). Alternatively, the stairs are opposite the lifts – there are two flights to level 4.
  3. On exiting the lift at level 4, the entrance to the Eye department is just on your left.

Locations elsewhere

We normally run clinics across various sites throughout Leeds.

Eye care for adult patients is mainly provided at St. James’s University Hospital. The Ophthalmology Day Case Unit (Ward J25) and Eye Theatres are located on the second floor of Chancellor’s wing.

Eye care for children is mostly provided at the Orthoptic and Children’s Eye clinics, provided from within the Multi-specialty Outpatients (formerly known as the old Children’s Day Hospital), also based at the St. James’s site.

Most of the service for adults with glaucoma and macular diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic maculopathy and retinal vein occlusion, is located within the Seacroft Eye Clinic at Seacroft Hospital.

Further ophthalmology services are provided from Wharfedale Hospital and the Appleson Optometrists practice at Wetherby.

Staff from the Ophthalmology department also provide eye genetics clinics in a number of local NHS Trusts.

Accessibility Guide

The Trust’s accessibility guides, created by AccessAble, are a great way to help you navigate our sites. You can use them to find accessibility information, including details about car parking, lifts, toilets, main entrances, hearing loops, and much more.

View the Opthalmology Accessibility Guide
Aerial view of St James's Hospital

Ophthalmology Overview Map (329kB)

Ophthalmology Directions Map (646kB)

At present our team is made up of twenty eight Consultant Ophthalmologists supported by a large multi professional clinical team.

The Ophthalmology team provides a specialist Ophthalmology service for patients in Leeds, Yorkshire and from across the North of England.

Recovery plan

The Ophthalmology consultants continue to identify and prioritise new and follow up patients on the basis of clinical need. 

About Us

The Ophthalmology or eye department provides a comprehensive range of secondary and tertiary eye (ophthalmic) services for adults and children in Leeds and a tertiary eye service for other areas of Yorkshire and beyond.

The department has a large multi professional eye care team, a range of highly specialist equipment and the team are able to diagnose, investigate, treat and operate (where necessary) on a range of eye conditions, including complex eye conditions – find out more about what we do.

There is more information on the Optometry service on the Optometry department page.

There is more information on the Orthoptic service and children’s eye clinic on the Orthoptic service and children’s eye clinic web pages.

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