Simon Jones: Same again?

With a general election looking almost certainly coming in 2024, the ramifications for healthcare and optometry will be felt for many years. Whatever the outcome, there will be no quick fixes, because the NHS faces an unprecedented combination of immediate crisis and existential long-term challenges. Thirteen years of mismanagement will do that.

As Harjit Sandhu, managing director of the Federation of Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians (Fodo), rightly points out (In Focus, page 6), the ability to stay strong and speak with a clear message will be imperative if the sector is going to achieve some success in the political sphere.

That unified voice hasn’t always been there in the past, but the sector seems impressively joined up at the moment, with significant moves being made in the Westminster corridors of power.