This page will give you some more information about our children’s A&E department located at the Richard Desmond Children’s Eye Centre (RDCEC), open from 9am-4pm Monday-Fridays, excluding bank holidays, for children and young people up to their 16th birthday who require urgent care for an eye condition. At all other times children and young people are seen in the adult A&E department in Moorfields at City Road (around the corner).
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A&E for children is located in the Richard Desmond Children’s Eye Centre
Address: 3 Peerless Street, London EC1V 9EZ
Opening hours: Monday to Friday: 9am to 4pm.
Outside of these hours, please attend the adult A&E department at Moorfields City Road (around the corner).
Welcome to Moorfields' children’s A&E department
Our children’s A&E department is set up to assess and treat children with urgent and emergency eye conditions; the range of routine tests and investigations are more limited in this department than in a booked clinic. Your child will be assessed and a decision will be made about which option will provide the best care.
Your visit
We aim to meet every child’s needs, however as the service can be very busy, visits to the children’s A&E department can take three to four hours.
Patients are usually seen in order of arrival, however you may occasionally notice that some children are seen before your child. These may be urgent cases, patients who have been seen earlier, or patients who have been sent for additional tests and are now returning to A&E.
Between 1-2pm there may be a staff handover period. The A&E nurses will keep you informed about this.
What to expect
Upon your arrival, we will ask you to wait in reception. Shortly afterwards, your child will be seen by a nurse, who will take you through to A&E for a preliminary assessment (triage).
The active triage process in our accident & emergency (A&E) department is set up to assess and treat children with urgent and emergency conditions; the range of routine tests and investigations is limited in this department.
Why do we do this? Active triage is a check to see who needs to be seen urgently today for treatment and who would be better seen at another time in one of our regular clinics or by a community optometrist/optician.
This means that if children need emergency care in A&E they will have a shorter wait to receive treatment because the department will not be so full. Any child needing less urgent care can be seen and treated in a booked clinic with all the tests available or directed to the best place to be assessed.
If you have any questions about your visit, please ask the nurse who will briefly explain what will happen. A different nurse will ask questions about your child’s health and test their vision.
If your child has an infection, they will be seen in a separate room, so that the nfection cannot be passed on to other children.
The next person your child will see will be the doctor. Your child may need drops to dilate their pupils to allow the doctor to see the back of their eyes; these drops are likely to affect your child’s vision for several hours after you leave the hospital. Your child might also need additional tests or a review by a paediatrician. Please allow time for these investigations.
How does this affect my child?
When you come to the children’s A&E in Moorfields, your child will be assessed by a triage-trained nurse who will decide which option can provide the best care for them today.
If your child has an urgent eye problem this will most likely mean immediate treatment today. If your child does not require emergency eye care one of the following options will apply:
- You will either be given an appointment date for a clinic before you leave or be sent an appointment in one of our clinics best suited for your child’s needs.
- We will recommend that your child has a standard eye test with a community optometrist (‘high street optician’). If there are any issues, the optometrist will be able to refer you on to the hospital eye service.
- We will recommend that your child sees their GP for referral to your local eye clinic.
Your child’s records will also be checked by a senior paediatric eye doctor and if any change in plan is required we will be in touch.
Important information
- If your child has any special needs, please let us know when you arrive.
- We ask that children are supervised by their parent or carer at all times, as we cannot take responsibility for your child.
- At the end of the consultation, please fill out our feedback sheet, located on the purple desk.
Refreshments and other services
There is a café which is usually open from 9am-4pm, serving a range of snacks including hot drinks, sandwiches, soup, biscuits, fruit and crisps.
There is also a water dispenser near the café.
Please note that the café accepts cash only, no credit cards.
There is a toilet and baby changing facility in the A&E waiting area and another toilet, baby changing facility
and baby feeding room next to the café in the main reception area.
Toys are available in all waiting areas and in our main waiting area we have colouring pens and pictures, DVDs and other activities to keep your child entertained. We also have a designated play leader who helps entertain the children. If you have any concerns or worries, you can discuss these with the play leader.
Thank you for taking the time to read this page. We hope it has answered some of your questions. If you have any further questions, please speak to a member of staff.
A&E guidance
At Moorfields Eye Hospital, we understand how worrying it can be when your child has an eye problem. Our paediatric A&E team are often asked about a few common childhood eye conditions; here you’ll find clear advice to guide you if you notice changes with your child’s eyes.
Chemical injury eye wash-out procedure for children and young people.
video transcript
Hello, this is Sophia and she is going to help us to show you what's going to happen when you have an eye washed out.
Having an eye washed out is like your eye having a shower to wash away anything that is making your eye feel uncomfortable.
Before we start the wash out, we need to check how much of the liquid is in your eye. To do this, we use a special strip of paper called a pH strip. We pull down your lower eyelid and touch the pH strip there to catch some tears. This strip will then change colour, and this will be checked against the pH colour chart.
Next, we’ll ask you to change into a hospital gown to stop your clothes from getting wet.
Younger children may need to be wrapped in a towel to keep them as still as possible whilst having the wash out.
You will be given a numbing eyedrop to help you feel as comfortable as possible during the wash out. This may feel a bit tickly when it first goes in, but if you keep blinking it will stop.
A special bag of water will be used to wash out your eye, and will be hanging from a special stand. Then your eye washout will begin.
We’ll ask you to look in different directions to make sure that the water is able to wash your whole eye. We can put on a light show and some nice music to listen to that will help to keep you calm and relaxed.
We’ll keep going with the wash out until the bag of water is empty. When the wash out is finished, we’ll remove the water. You may find that you are a bit wet from all the water that we have used.
We will then check the pH colour of your eye again to make sure that all the liquid is out of your eye.
After your wash out, we’ll test your vision using these special glasses.
You will then see the doctor for the final check.
Review date: November 2025