Optometry Tomorrow 2005

This year's College of Optometrists' conference was held in Manchester and with lectures and workshops running concurrently, delegates could choose to gain CET points in the subjects and the learning styles that suited them best. David Cartwright reports

In the first lecture of the day Frank Munro and Trevor Warburton, both members of the Department of Health steering group that devised the Eye Care pathways, discussed the four model care pathways.  These are: low vision, AMD, cataract, and glaucoma.

The speakers described the manpower and funding issues associated with each pathway and how the desired aim is to make best use of the available resource and reduce the number of steps that the patient has to go through before treatment.

Fundamental to this is to include optometry within the pathways and to do so, there should be adequate funding for the service provided. To illustrate the point, the use of optometrists within cataract pathways has reduced the number of patients attending secondary care prior to and post surgery, in turn reducing waiting lists. A fifth pathway relating to the treatment of anterior segment disease was also described, where it is hoped that optometrists with further training will be involved in defined levels of care depending on further training.