Tell us about your practice and job:
Morven Campbell: My role includes regular days in practice but more of my time is spent overseeing the clinical needs of the business. This includes training, development, regulation and forward strategy. I thrive on the mix, I have a loyal patient base in practice in Milngavie, north of Glasgow who continue to challenge me with their eye care needs and in my management role Black and Lizars has a fantastic team of engaged and interested professional staff over 24 practices.
A brief overview of your career:
MC: I originally studied ophthalmic dispensing and enjoyed eye care so much I continued with optometry, qualifying in 1996. Throughout my years at university I worked in Lizars’ large Glasgow city centre practice and completed both my dispensing and optometry pre-registration years there. I was lucky to work with fantastic clinicians who eagerly shared their knowledge and enthusiasm. In 1999 Lizars merged with CJ Black to become Black and Lizars and I moved to Milngavie. I am proud to say that through the years I have experienced nearly every Black and Lizars practice including domiciliary, corporate and industrial settings. I believe this variety gives a great understanding of patient needs and has allowed me to develop my skills.
How many practices and professional staff does Black and Lizars employ in each job category?
MC: Our practice teams consist of managers, optometrists, dispensing opticians, clinical assistants and optical assistants. We have committed to ensuring that all our staff gain an optical qualification so we have a program of support towards achieving a clinical assistants qualification. We currently have 57 optometrists (full time equivalents), 22 dispensing opticians in addition to management within each practice and support from optical and clinical assistants. In total we employ 241 staff across our network.
What is Black and Lizars’ approach to education and training and what’s your involvement?
MC: We have a training support advisor who co-ordinates our company training. Our approach is to ensure that the training provided is suitable for the business and staff requirements. We use many forms – face to face, webinar and it may be by practice or by employee category. Where, for example, we are launching a new product the supplier becomes involved and an informative presentation is then delivered in person or by webinar.
When it comes to CET I work closely with our partners to deliver interesting and relevant topics. I encourage our clinical staff to come forward with any training needs and everyone logs their activity to identify any specific competencies required. We have had some fantastic speakers present exclusively to our staff, and the new cycle should ensure more interesting topics and informative speakers.
Do you have any involvement in any education and training outside Black and Lizars?
MC: Last year I was invited to become a Topcon University Associate. I have presented for them at various conferences on a variety of subjects including vitreo-macular interface disease, anterior segment OCT and glaucoma.
I have written articles and held workshops on anterior segment assessment and grading.
I am also passionate about children’s eye care and through this became involved in a J&J peer to peer education series around children and contact lenses.
In addition to my role with Black and Lizars I try to be as active as possible within the wider optometric community as I believe that sharing knowledge is the way forward for eye health and our standing as an essential primary care provider.
What do you think about the new enhanced CET scheme?
MC: The need for a personal development plan (PDP) ensures we all reflect on our abilities and requirements, this can only be a positive change and will hopefully ensure that CET is evenly spread throughout the period. I would have liked to see the requirement for peer review increased to one session a year though.
How has the new Scottish eye care scheme, offering NHS examinations for everybody, affected your company and Scottish eye health?
MC: The Scottish eye care scheme has improved our knowledge and abilities, it means we are more and more integrated with secondary care and ensures our patients get access to appropriate care within the community. Optometry is now actively publicised as the ‘first port of call’ for all eye problems in Scotland and we have close relationships with GP surgeries and our local hospital eye departments. Of course getting paid a fee for these presentations allows us to manage them, although a busy day with a lot of emergency patients is still a challenge. Dilating all patients over 60 felt like a big change in 2006 but now it has become a routine part of our practice. I wouldn’t want to go back. We have created clinical protocols to ensure best practice and there has been a program of training for support staff on triaging emergency presentations to help with the smooth running of our practices.
Black and Lizars has a reputation for investing in new technology and instrumentation. What’s the ethos behind it?
MC: We have always had the ethos that technology should be there to benefit our patients and allow us to better look after their eyes. We were early adopters of OCT technology which has greatly increased our knowledge in addition to helping detect disease and refine referrals.
We know that secondary care is stretched so anything we can do to detect conditions earlier where treatment may be easier, or continue to manage patients within our practices helps everyone committed to eye care. We also have a network of 11 Optomaps, the largest in the UK. These have really added to our clinical service. This was perfectly illustrated when during initial training a melanoma was detected in a staff member. Thankfully it was treated quickly and she has recovered.
