Conference report: Optical politics in Prague

With Brexit, practitioners may think that ECOO has little relevance to today’s UK optical market, yet nothing could be further from the truth. ECOO fights on behalf of Europe’s optical professionals on cross border issues such as standards, taxation and medical devices that have far-reaching financial and professional implications for us all.

It is largely because of ECOO for example that fluorescein has remained available for use in the fitting of contact lenses. This is an active campaign that was reported at the congress and is still an area of concern. It isn’t so much that it being classed as a medicine will prevent opticians (as opposed to optometrists) from using it, but that if paper strips have to be re-classified it will take years for that to happen and it is unlikely that any manufacturer will want to take it on.