Government policymakers have missed an important opportunity to include eye care in their policies on public health and workforce development, according to new General Optical Council (GOC) chief executive and registrar Samantha Peters.
Speaking to Optician at Optrafair 2011, Peters said: 'We need to make sure the government and the policy makers see how much can be achieved with eye care. At times it seems like eye care is forgotten. When I read the white papers on public health and on workforce development I can't see anything much on eye care in them.' She also acknowledged the efforts of the optical lobbyists who were 'working very hard together' to try and address the issue.
Another issue over which Peters said the GOC must remain vigilant was the structural changes occurring within the NHS. 'Our job as a regulator is making sure that the things that make good regulation happen don't get lost,' she said.
Peters said that she was also particularly concerned about the impact the constrained financial climate could have on the sector. 'People may skimp on their eye care which has an impact on public protection. Our public awareness campaign which has leaflets in 7,000 GP surgeries and 1,200 pharmacies is helping to increase understanding of the importance of regular eye health checks,' she revealed.
Peters said the experience she brought of the musculoskeletal field where she worked as a trustee for Arthritis Care and of the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance would be of particular benefit to her new role in optics. She explained that in each field the public don't see the importance of early diagnosis and the difference it could make to their long-term care and that she knew the impact that could be made through raising awareness.
'There isn't a great understanding among the public about what they need to be doing to look after their eyes well, nor about how eye care has changed, but there is potential to learn from other fields about how to get such messages across,' she said.
Another major challenge Peters said would face the GOC during her tenure was the proposed transfer of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) from the arm's-length body sector to self-funding status. 'For us the challenge is going to be ensuring we deliver good regulation while responding to the changes the government is planning for regulation as a whole, and the challenges they set out for all of us as individual regulators,' she said.
However Peters felt the impact of the changes would not be as severe on the GOC as for some of the regulatory bodies regulating other professions.
Revealing her perceptions of the profession, Peters said that optics had a lot of 'strengths that could be shared broadly across healthcare'. She cited CET as one such strength, which she believed optics could teach the wider healthcare world.