Final changes to registering patients as severely sight impaired (blind) or sight impaired (partially sighted). Department of Health gateway approval number 5358 applies where relevant.
The Certificate of Vision Impairment, CVI 2003 (Gateway reference 2115) and associated documents have been updated in consultation with a wide range of professionals, other government departments and voluntary organisations working in the field of visual impairment. We would like to thank all those people who sent in comments on the documents and process. It is clear that the system is working well in some parts of the country and is being used as an opportunity to improve the integration of health and social care.
From 1 September 2005 hospital eye clinics will need to use the revised Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI) to certify patients as severely sight impaired or sight impaired. The form BD8 should no longer be accepted. When signed by a consultant ophthalmologist, the CVI will now be the formal notification required by councils with social services responsibilities (or their agents) to register someone as sight impaired or as severely sight impaired.
Articles describing the background to these changes are under the 'Registration of sight loss in England' at:
More information about visual impairment can be found on the following websites:
1. The CVI form (which has been slightly amended in August 2007): people accessing this information from the internet can only download a specimen of the CVI for information. Hospital eye services can download the Word version of this form for tailoring with their own contact details from the NHSweb link below, or by emailing:
A secondary purpose of the CVI is to collect data on the incidence and causes of severe sight problems. The current arrangements about where hospitals should send a copy of the form for this purpose are contained in the Explanatory Notes.
2. Explanatory notes with general instructions and with detailed matters for ophthalmologists to consider when filling in the certificate.
3. Referral of Vision Impaired Patient (RVI): these can be issued by eye clinics. They can be used to alert social services to the needs of people with vision impairments in a timely manner and in advance of certification. The RVI should be opened 'Read only' and then saved with a local name.
4. Information for social services and for optometrists:
5. In response to the consultation feedback the Letter of Vision Impairment will now be replaced by a Low Vision Leaflet (LVL). The first document is a pdf document and the other document, that you can download, is in Quark format. In order for a local authority to localise their own LVL, they will need to use Adobe Acrobat Professional or Quark XPress.
There are special instructions to download the Quark Xpress file through Internet Explorer
Please note the different instructions for PC and Apple Mac Internet Explorer users. The file works with Firefox and Opera. To view the file you require Quark Xpress 5 or above.
PC Users:
Apple Mac users:
The front cover of the Low Vision Leaflet is also available as a high resolution JPG file.
6. A toolkit, in the form of a series of PowerPoint presentations, handouts and training materials has been developed to facilitate implementation of the process.
You can download the toolkit in two formats. One format allows you to create a CD from the toolkit, while you can also download the toolkit as a direct file. Instructions on how to create the toolkit on a CD are available from the link below:
The files that you need to create the toolkit on a CD are available from the link below, as well as the instructions. The file is in a ZIP format and will need to be uncompressed. If you encounter any problems download the files you may wish to right-click the link if using Internet Explorer and then select 'Save Target As...'.
The toolkit is also also available as a direct download from the link below. The files need to be uncompressed onto a folder on your computer. You then need to open a file called 'autorun' in this folder to access the toolkit
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