Home Local News WWL’s Long-Serving Orthoptist Retires in time for 2021

WWL’s Long-Serving Orthoptist Retires in time for 2021

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Pamela Bowen
Pamela Bowen in the Boston House Eye Unit

One of the longest-serving staff members at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) will be saying goodbye to more than just 2020 when this year draws to a close.

Pamela Bowen, 62, from Billinge, has worked in the Orthoptic Department at WWL for 38 years, after joining the Trust in July 1982.

Originally from Omagh in Northern Ireland, Pamela is currently the Special Education Needs Lead for WWL’s Orthoptics Department which diagnoses and treats a range of vision impairments from double vision to defective binocular vision.

“I remember being in school and thinking about what kind of career I’d like to have, and I thought ‘eyes are interesting maybe I’ll have a job with them.’”

This decision saw Pamela move to England at 21-years-old to study Orthoptics at the Cheltenham School of Orthoptics.

It was whilst she was studying Orthoptics she met Alan an ophthalmic optics student, who would go on to be her husband and father of her four children.

After completing their studies, Alan was offered a job in his hometown Wigan and the couple moved North where Pamela accepted her first job, as a Senior 2 Orthoptist, at WWL.

During her time at the Trust, Pamela has seen a lot of changes within the department and the wider Orthoptic field.

“When I first started in my role we saw a lot fewer patients compared to what we see now, but the children that we were seeing generally had much more serious conditions.

“We originally had a few clinics out in the community but this has built up over the years.”

Within a few years of joining the department the Trust’s Orthoptic service expanded and introduced visual screening, where members of the team would go into local nurseries to test children’s vision and refer for any necessary glasses checks.

A few years later a recommendation was made in Health for All Children that screening for visual impairments should take place for children between 4 and 5 years of age and the service then moved their visual screening into local schools.

It was aspects like this that made the job the perfect one for Pamela who added; “I loved being able to go to different clinics and see different patients.

“It always kept the job interesting being able to move between the clinics and no two days were the same as I was helping adults as well as children.”

During her 38 year career with the Trust Pamela also played a critical part in setting up a special interest group at the British and Irish Orthoptic Society aimed at Orthoptists treating children with Special Educational Needs.

The group became a place where orthoptists across Britain and Ireland could come together to share best practice and develop resources to ensure that patients were receiving the best possible treatment.

Setting up the group in 2012 was one of the highlights of Pam’s career; “The group was a massive success and our first clinical day meeting had over 100 attendees from all over the British Isles.

“It was a real honour co-chairing the group and we decided that after five years it was time for us to hand that responsibility over so that we could make sure the group was still getting fresh new ideas.”

Amanda Mars, Lead Orthoptist at WWL, said “Pam has dedicated her career to improving the quality of life for all of her patients with various conditions such as double vision, squints and other vision problems.

“In the last decade Pam has become well known through the Special educational needs schools in the borough ensuring that these children have the best opportunities to be unaffected by vision problems.

“Not only is she mum to four lovely children and nanny to 2 beautiful boys, she is the mum of our department and always there for us to offer a supportive ear or advice when we need it.

“Her unique organisational skills have brought about many laughs and her commitment to the department and Trust has been unwavering over an amazing 38 years.

“We will miss her greatly but wish her many happy years of retirement to enjoy with her family.”

With her last day at the Trust falling on December 31st Pamela will be starting 2021 a retired woman and plans to spend her extra free time with her children, two grandchildren, and her mother.

orthoptist
Amanda Mars – Lead Orthoptist, Siobhan Kays – Orthoptist, and Pamela Bowen

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