College backs Northern Ireland referral plans

A new strategy for providing eye care in Northern Ireland has been backed by the College of Optometrists.

The College said electronic referrals between optometrists and ophthalmologists would help reduce waiting times and save money, but believed more could be done to improve communication. It praised a focus on tackling eye health inequalities and said campaigns to link smoking to blindness would also help improve public health. The College added that while the strategy gave equal weight to the roles of primary care optometrists and ophthalmic medical practitioners, there were over 400 primary care optometrists across the country compared to 'only a handful of ophthalmic medical practitioners'.