Diabetes Case Study: A vital role to play

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Pointing out the elephant in the room is never easy or comfortable but always necessary and ultimately useful. Last week’s National Optical Committee conference (see News) gave optometrist Moaz Nanjuwany the opportunity to do optometry a mammoth favour by pointing out the pachyderm preventing the profession playing a proper role in primary eye care. Namely respect and recognition for the optical profession by GPs.

It is not an easy thing to admit, indeed in some areas it simply isn’t the case, but for others the fact that individual GPs and ophthalmologists don’t engage with optometry is because of the attitudes they hold about fellow professionals.

The role optometry can play in primary eye care is in no doubt. Optician recently hosted a round table with the LOC Support Unit (Optician 25.10.13) which highlighted how optometry can get involved with primary care under the new NHS structures. There was a bit of elephant spotting going on at the round table with optical lead Dharmesh Patel suggesting that experience on the ground wasn’t always the same as the perceived pace of change. Boots professional service manager John Hopcroft gave an example of how ophthalmologists and optometrists can work together at a local level, but others accepted that there were areas of ignorance. Not surprisingly, Nanjuwany’s NOC assertion was rejected by the NHS commissioner but if an optometrist has the chutzpah to bring this up at the NOC conference, pound to a penny many more have had the same experience. The debate needs to be moved on to discover how those perceptions can be changed so optometry can play its part in the new NHS.