In light of the recent disappointing news of a 39p lift in the NHS sight test fees, this week’s op-ed could quite feasibly have been distilled into four words – ‘I told you so.’ But the sector needs to pick itself up and think about where it goes next and who it sends in to negotiate on its behalf.
Despite recent dalliances with Westminster movers and shakers, optometry has again been hit in the face with the proverbial custard pie. Maybe it’s due due to those fleeting positive exchanges with the government and opposition in the past couple of years that make this latest imposed uplift on GOS sight test fees and grants an even harder pill to swallow.
The Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee (OFNC) says it will be ‘writing to the sector to survey the impact of this latest real-terms cut to NHS eye care.’ I’m happy to expedite some of that early feedback.
From scouring forums and Facebook groups, comments such as ‘Is there really any point in the OFNC?’ and ‘The OFNC request for £26 is nearly as bad!’ are common and offer a snapshot of the discontent in the fruits of the negotiating body’s work.
Others, quite understandably, are thinking of limiting access to NHS eye care through creative appointment scheduling, while others are considering going private only. There seems to be a growing school of thought that the sector would be better off without GOS in any form.
The big issue here is access to NHS care, but many would argue that most people these days aren’t that far away from a multiple offering a free eye test – which, deep down, has always been the problem for the OFNC. How do you argue the value of something when so many give it away for free to attract custom?
With an election looming, the question is now whether the likely Labour government will make good on its promise to put high street optometry to work in order to help with pressure on hospital ophthalmology departments? The OFNC should have the opportunity to sit down with a fresh government, but the results will be under intense scrutiny.