Professional divide over fees

Few General Optical Council meetings can have crammed in as much excitement as the one which took place in Harley Street last week. Council considered a packed agenda but inevitably it was the massively increased, and differentiated, fees for optometrists and dispensing opticians that dominated the headlines.

What is less obvious is the background and budget that has made those increases necessary or how long that differential might last. The Council finally agreed that the annual retention fee for optometrists should be increased from £219 to £325 and the fee for dispensing opticians increased from £219 to £280. There are also new fees for registration to the specialist registers. But the decision was not easily reached and things could have been very different.