CET feedback: Contact lens aftercare frequency

This exercise proved interesting, not least to see if there had been any change in practitioner views regarding aftercare frequency from the last time we published such an exercise over two years ago. As was noted then, typical responses to the question of how to decide on aftercare frequency included ‘if there are no problems the next aftercare is in six months’ and ‘my colleagues and I will on the whole see patients at six-monthly intervals’. In fact, over 50 per cent of respondents had a six-month frequency as the default period. Reasons for this were not always stated, though many suggested it was to do with the design of the appointment-keeping systems. Adoption of a flexible approach, whereby no set time period exists and each case is decided on assessment (whether one week to two years), was the approach of just 10% of respondents to this exercise.