ECOO calls for wider role for optometrists

A health economics study by the European Council of Optometry and Optics (ECOO) has found that optometry is a safe and cost-effective alternative in primary eye care.

As a result, ECOO has called for greater integration of appropriately qualified optometrists (OOs) in primary eye care across the whole of Europe, with related legal provisions needing to be created in the various European countries.

Comparative analysis of delivery of primary eye care in three European countries, carried out at the Department of Medicinal Management at the University of Duisburg-Essen, looked into three different eye care systems - the UK, Germany and France. It concluded that greater integration of optometrists into primary eye care was safe, cost effective and structurally necessary.