DoH ready to listen to notification argument

The Department of Health has said it would consult again on the requirement for practitioners to notify GPs every time an NHS eye test is carried out on a patient with diabetes or glaucoma, if a sufficient argument was put forward by the profession.

The requirement, which was first introduced in 1986, is retained in the new GOS contract which comes into force on August 1 2008.

However, many optical practitioners have argued that it places an unnecessary bureaucratic burden on them. Instead they feel they should be able to exercise their clinical judgement on when to notify a patient's GP.