A new report has highlighted how optometry has a key role to play in creating a healthier Wales through the provision of eye care.
The foundations of the NHS Wales report are based on developing NHS services in a modern world where technology has a strong influence on life and service providers should be co-ordinated in the care provided.
Its ambition was to bring health and social care services together in order to meet the needs of individual patients, with a greater emphasis on keeping people healthy and well.
In the report, entitled NHS Wales Eye Health Care: Future Approach for Optometry Services, the introduction of the Wales Eye Care Service was noted for enabling the profession to be the first port of call for patients with eye problems.
Vaughan Gething, Minister for Health and Social Services, said: ‘Optometrists are an integral part of the transformation of eye care services and the on-going development of care closer to home.
‘While there are challenges to ensure patients’ timely access to all eye care services, each member of the clinical team providing services along the patient pathway is collaborating to work at the top of their respective clinical license.’
The Member of the Sennedd added that the Welsh Government and NHS Wales were addressing challenges together by enabling broader working relationships between clinical teams.
‘Across all eye care pathways, clinical teams must work together seamlessly utilising their full skillset and working in new and innovative ways. Change happens over time and does not come to fruition quickly or easily, however, there is a strong sense of shared values and ownership across the clinical team,’ Gething added.
The report was developed as part of the Welsh Government’s A Healthier Wales: Our plan for health and social care, which called for new models of seamless health and social care at a local level.
Among the recommendations for the future of optometry services was to build upon the eye health focus of the Wales Eye Care Services by further embedding prevention, wellbeing and quality improvement tools across all optometry services.
It said this would facilitate improved patient outcomes and reduce demand for GP services in primary care, as well as specialist hospital eye services.
The report recognised optometrists were well placed to safely treat and manage more patients in primary care and the number of practitioners who gained additional higher qualification in order to meet patients’ needs has increased.
It also highlighted the importance of all eye care providers fully utilising their skillset and seeing the patients that only they should see in order to meet the demands of an increasingly elderly population with a rising prevalence of related eye disease.
Aims were focused on providing eye health care close to patients’ homes, preventing unnecessary referrals to GPs and hospitals and ensuring timely access for an ophthalmologist to provide specialist treatment of blinding eye disease.
In order to facilitate this, the report said, a fully integrated workforce and eye care pathways without boundaries were paramount.
Other recommendations included the expansion of continuous professional development programmes to cover reflective practice, mentoring and leadership.
In addition, legislative changes to general ophthalmic services, Eye Health Examination Wales and Low Vision Service Wales clinical examinations would underpin the wider health and social services aims of the Welsh Government.
The report concluded: ‘The underlying principle is to ensure eye health is the focus of good eye care and health professionals are working together across all eye care pathways to provide appropriate care and for patients to receive the best possible outcomes.
‘To enable this shift towards a wholly clinical approach to eye health care, building upon the current service delivery models in optometry and removing barriers to change are vital.’
- Read the report on the NHS Wales website: https://bit.ly/3dmOdaH
