Abnormal numbers? Profession responds to referral criticism

A critical viewpoint on the referral of eye patients from high street to hospital has been opposed by the profession but served to stoke an important debate about the provision of eye care amid widespread NHS reforms.

It was unlikely consultant ophthalmologist Michael Clarke expected such a response when he wrote in British Medical Journal last week that ‘UK law leads to opticians making too many referrals’ (News page 5).

Central to his argument was section 26 of the Opticians Act requiring optometrists carrying out NHS sight tests to perform such examinations of the eye for the purpose of detecting injury, disease or abnormality, before providing a written statement on whether the patient was being referred.