Royal College of Ophthalmologists

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists

Motto	Ut Omnes Videant
Motto in English	So that all may see
Established	1988
Parent institution	Royal College of Surgeons of England
Location	London, NW1, United Kingdom
Website	www.rcophth.ac.uk

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists, founded in 1988, is an independent professional body and one of the Medical Royal Colleges. It regulates ophthalmology in the United Kingdom in conjunction with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (RCPSG). They set the standards and examinations for medical doctors aiming to become ophthalmologists, and provide surgical skills training, as well as services to those who have completed their training.

Historically, treatments for eye diseases were the preserve of much itinerant charlatanry, such as 'couching', or displacement of dense cataract with a needle, which led to brief improvements but very high complications and blindness in more than 70%, although the Sushruta Samhita described improvements to this as far back as 800 BC. The return of many soldiers from Napoleonic campaigns suffering an epidemic of trachoma, however, spurred the foundation of Moorfields Eye Hospital in 1805 by surgeon John Cunningham Saunders, with encouragement from Astley Cooper.

This led to institutions in Exeter, Bristol and Manchester, and a second in London, by 1816. This in turn led to the opening of ophthalmology departments in general hospitals during the 19th century. Despite this and the appointment of John Freke back in 1727 as the first surgeon specialising in eye diseases, many ophthalmologists of the day did not fully specialise and ophthalmology remained as a branch of general surgery under the ægis of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.