For the first time since research has been conducted, optical practices became the initial port of call for people with an emergency eye problem in the General Optical Council’s (GOC) 2023 public perceptions research.
The regulator sought to understand the public’s views and practical experiences of using eye care services.
Findings were based on a UK representative sample of 2,020 interviews that were completed online between January 27 and February 13, 2023.
Steve Brooker, director of regulatory strategy, said: ‘The profession should be proud that public satisfaction and trust levels remain high, and I would like to thank all our registrants for their continued hard work and commitment.
‘An important milestone is that, for the first time since we began this research in 2015, more people would first visit an opticians or optometrist practice with an eye problem than a GP practice or surgery. However, there are differences between nations, and it will be interesting to see if this trend accelerates in future as registrants become better equipped to meet a wider range of eye health needs.
‘We will use insights from this research to inform our review of our standards of practice for optometrists and dispensing opticians and standards for students. We hope registrants and other stakeholders will also find information from this report valuable to help them continue to deliver high-quality optical care.’
Of respondents, 36% said they would visit an optical practice if they woke up with an emergency eye problem, which has risen from 34% in 2022.
It meant optical practices overtook GPs as the first port of call for eye care services with 33% of respondents who said they would visit a GP or surgery first, which decreased from 35% in 2022 and 38% in 2021.
The GOC said the figure for optical practices has steadily grown since 2015 when 19% reported they would go to an optical practice first.
However, there were differences between the nations: 49% in Northern Ireland and 46% in Scotland said they would visit an optical practice first, compared to 39% in Wales and 30% in England.
Reasons given by those who chose not to go to an optical practice included: they might not have been seen on the same day (24%), an optical practice would not be able to treat these kinds of problems (17%), potentially paying for the treatment (17%), inconvenient location (11%), and an optical practice could not prescribe the right medication to treat the problem (10%).
Satisfaction stays high
There were 77% of respondents who said they had been for a sight test or eye examination in the last two years, which was up 3% since last year, and the GOC said this could be due to pandemic restrictions between 2020 and 2022.
Those who said they have never been for a sight test or eye examination dropped from 14% in 2015 to 3% in 2023.
Notably, those who wore vision correction were more likely to have had a sight test or eye examination in the past two years (87%) compared to non-wearers (40%).
Public satisfaction remained high with 94% of respondents who had a sight test or eye examination in the last two years satisfied with the optometrist who carried it out, which was the same figure as last year.
Additionally, 93% were satisfied with their visit overall, which was down 1% compared to last year. Ninety-two percent of respondents were confident about receiving a high standard of care from an optical practice, which was the highest among other primary care settings: 86% for a pharmacy, 81% for dental practice, and 79% for a GP surgery.
There were 13% who had ever experienced a situation where something went wrong with the care or service they received when visiting an optical practice, which was the same as last year. Of those, 56% received an apology while 42% did not.
The GOC also sought insight into the public’s habits and 21% said they shopped around to compare different optical practices before picking which one to go to.
Of respondents, 41% said convenient location was the main factor that determined where they went for eye care and 25% said seeing the same healthcare professional as previous tests was an important factor.
Affordability was an important issue for 21% of respondents when selecting an optical practice, with 72% who said they knew the price of the sight test or eye examination before attending.
Eighty percent of respondents who had a sight test or eye examination within the past two years were also satisfied with the overall value for money.
Of respondents, 70% bought either spectacles or contact lenses as a result of their sight test or eye examination, and 85% purchased their spectacles at the optical practice where they had their sight test or eye examination, but this was lower for contact lenses (63%).