Corneal abrasion - pharmacy, GP or A&E?

[daimbar]

DD (2) scratched my eye last night and it's still really sore, vision blurry, keeps tearing up and feels like I have grit in it.

Google says it's probably a corneal abrasion - where would I go to get this looked at? Would a pharmacist and GP have the equipment or do I need A&E? Don't want to waste doctor's time at A&E if I can get it sorted elsewhere.

Start at the pharmacist and work your way up if needed? We recently ended up in eye casualty with my little girl for doing the same,the pharmacist sent us to the GP who felt it needed looking at by the hospital. It was all fine and might have been due to her being so little.

I'd be going to my opticians first. I recently had a bad eye infection and the pharmacy were no help at all. An optician will at least be able to look to see what the damage is and refer you elsewhere if needed.

I would try the A&E, there are a few specialists ones.
look up the closest to you.

I got mine treated at a walk-in clinic at the weekend. They used the UV light thing to confirm it and I got drops; it healed really quickly but was painful while it lasted

I work in a pharmacy, and we'd just refer you on. Unfortunately if there's any pain in the eye we're not licensed to sell you anything (and there's not really anything you could be sold tbh!) and it's a straight referral. So I'd go to walk in clinic, or an optician.

Thanks all, I don't have an optician and have found there's a specialist eye clinic A&E nearby so I will try there. Appreciate the advice.

Re the specialist eye A&E, we have one in our nearby hospital but you can't just rock up there - you need to have been seen by an optometrist (optician), GP or bog standard A&E first, as it operates on a referral only system. I would ring around your local opticians and ask if they have an emergency appt available. Our local Specsavers (both of them) keep a small number if appts clear for emergencies.

I've been to eye A&E and was seen.

Thanks for the heads up Bad I just called the eye hospital and they said it's usually done on referral but they would put me on the list for this morning so that's great.

When my DS had a scratched cornea the GP sent us to A&E

That's great that they've fitted you in Daim. Better than schlepping all the way there only to be turned away. I suspect the fact you'd already tried the optician route & been turned down helped.

Thanks for asking Kitty - I got some antibiotic drops and it's much better already.