In focus: Proving and improving the value of optometry

Doug Perkins has become something of a focal point at Optrafair in recent years, delivering keynote addresses on structural issues surrounding the profession’s future.

This year, in a double hander with Paul Morris, director of professional advancement, he laid out his view of what optics needed to do in the face of imminent competition from online refraction technologies and increasing powerbases within the multinationals.

Setting the scene Perkins spelled out the value of the relationship optics enjoys with the NHS which delivers 15 million patients through the doors of practices each year. ‘The NHS has brought hundreds of millions of patients over the years,’ he said, but that might not always be the case as technology, such as online refraction, advanced.