Plans to put the optometric workforce at the forefront of eye care provision, education and research have been outlined by the College of Optometrists.
Ambitions for the future of optometry were detailed in the professional body’s Workforce Vision, which it said puts optometrists at the heart of patient centred eye care.
The College wanted to ensure the expertise of optometrists were fully recognised and their skills utilised in new, funded models of care.
As part of this, a period of engagement with members and stakeholders would take place to gather data and better understand the current eye care workforce and future needs.
The College would work with partners across the eye health professions to commission the multidisciplinary project, Workforce Vision, and provide a comprehensive analysis.
It added this would enable optometrists to play a central role in the delivery of evolving eye health services.
Professor Leon Davies, president of the College of Optometrists, said: ‘The College’s Workforce Vision provides an ambitious and unique chance to shape the future direction of eye health provision, and our profession.
‘The activities planned are vital to build the evidence base needed to advocate on behalf of optometrists across the UK. There are many exciting opportunities ahead, and I hope you will all join me in support of the College’s work in this area as we move towards a greater recognition and future role for all optometrists.’
An essential role
The College set out three core aims of its vision: utilising the full skills and competences of optometrists; supporting and inspiring optometrists to develop new skills; and ensuring that optometrists were at the heart of new models of eye care.
Increased recognition of the role and skills of optometrists among other healthcare professionals and commissioners of eye care services was a priority for the College.
It said it would achieve this by working with governments, health services, commissioners and employers, as well as championing a UK-wide first contact practitioner scheme to promote services.
The College’s vision said: ‘Optometrists working in primary care are well-placed to provide routine, enhanced and shared eye care services closer to home, and to reduce the backlog of delayed outpatient appointments, without additional training.
‘With further training, they can offer an even wider range of specialist eye care services and treatments for managing patients with more complex needs without referral to secondary care. Likewise, those working in secondary care can provide specialised eye care and treatments that increase the capacity of outpatient clinics.’
It noted more services should be funded.
Fit for the future
The College also wanted to broaden optometrists’ scope of practice through training and education and have opportunities to use their skills in all eye care pathways.
It would do this by working with the General Optical Council to ensure the future of pre-registration optometry education supported the requirements of the profession.
The professional body would also develop post-registration higher qualifications in specialised areas of practice that aligned with evolving models of care.
Additionally, the College would encourage optometrists to contribute to the education of the next generation and champion optometrists who led in clinical research.
The College’s vision to ensure that optometrists were at the heart of new models of eye care included an enhanced and equal relationship between primary and secondary eye care.
It would do this by defining and upholding the role of optometry across all patient pathways and developing models for current and future workforce needs.
To support its vision, the College said it would work with all four governments in the UK and each nation’s health service. It would also make nine recommendations to policy makers and commissioners in the eye care sector.
These included the need for eye care services to incorporate innovative, integrated models of care to improve patient care and outcomes in a sustainable fashion and within the limited resources of each health service.
The College said there was an opportunity to build on new clinical pathways that were introduced during the pandemic and to develop integrated eye care across the hospital eye care service, the independent sector, community settings and primary eye care.
