AN emergency eye unit at the QEII Hospital in Welwyn Garden City is set to close.

The decision is being considered by Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Strategic Health Authority (SHA) and could be put in place within three years.

It is planning to centralise all accident and emergency opthalmology services at a specialist centre based at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital.

The specialist unit will serve the whole population of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire and replace two ophthalmology units currently based at Watford and Welwyn Garden City.

Outpatient eye services will still be provided at the QEII until the opening of the new super-hospital in Hatfield in 2011.

A spokesman for the SHA said the decision formed part of the Investing In Your Health Programme, saying it would "mean a better provision of service overall".

He added: "The vast majority of opthalmology treatments are for elective surgery such as cataracts and glaucoma which will in the future be provided at surgi-centres.

"The small number of people who require A&E services will be taken direct to the Luton and Dunstable which makes more sense as there will be a single specialist unit able to provide a better service."

Earlier this month the East and North Herts NHS Trust announced it was closing all overnight children's accident and emergency services at the QEII and switching them to the Lister Hospital in Stevenage.

Conservative parliamentary candidate for Welwyn Hatfield Grant Shapps who set up a campaign to overturn that decision said he was not surprised at the latest developments. He said the trust was gradually breaking up the services on offer at the QEII.

A spokesman for the East and North Herts Trust, which runs the QEII, said a final decision had not yet been made and the public would be given the chance to have their say during a consultation.

The spokesman added: "During the 2003 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire-wide public consultation Investing in Your Health there was wide-spread public support for option two.

"Investing in your Health also made it clear that the six hospitals in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire would see changes in the arrangement of some highly specialised medical and surgical services that exist at the moment."

For the 12 months to January 2005, the emergency ophthalmology service at the QEII saw 5,916 new patients and 3,430 follow-ups from many parts of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.