AOP demands funding for Goldmann testing

High intraocular pressures detected with a non-contact tonometer (NCT) should be repeated with a Goldmann tonometer before referral but only if the service is appropriately funded according to the Association of Optometrists.

The AOP was responding to reports on a Plymouth based study (News 05.11.10) that use of NCT readings for referral by optometrists were wasting primary care trust funds and causing patient distress.

In a letter to be published in Optician next week the Trevor Warburton, clinical adviser, AOP legal services, said false positives could easily be reduced by a back-up scheme but funding had to be in place.

He pointed to the experience in his own area where 77 per cent of potential referrals were deflected by a funded scheme for repeat pressures. Such schemes were highly cost effective he wrote. 'What staggers me is how long it is taking some [PCTs] to implement it, and how complicated some of them manage to make a very simple process.'