Over half of optical practices are already offering community services and 80 per cent are aware of the reforms that took effect in April to NHS commissioning of primary eye care services at a local level, according to research carried out for the Local Optical Committee Support Unit.
Since April of this year the structure of NHS primary eye care services has changed, with GPs within clinical commissioning groups taking a lead role. The survey, carried out by Optician and supported by an educational grant from Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK, showed that 51 per cent of practices were already involved in such schemes and that sentiment towards them was generally favourable.
Jenny Manchester, LOCSU communications manager, said: ‘The purpose of this survey was to find out about the attitudes and perceptions of eye health practitioners to community eye health services. The results tell us that not only are the majority eye health professionals interested and already involved in these services, many are also positive about their future. LOCSU will be working with other optical organisations over the next few weeks to address some of the issues raised by respondents such as the lack of awareness of the Public Health Indicator for eye health.’
Independent practices (61 per cent) were most likely to be involved, with the decision-maker being the practice owner. A significant 10 per cent of respondents would get involved if there were services in their area to participate in and a further 8 per cent were still considering schemes. Just 14 per cent of respondents said they knew nothing about community services such as glaucoma referral schemes, minor eye conditions service or low vision clinics. Among those who do not currently offer services, half said they were not the decision-maker but wished their practice would get involved. Almost a quarter, 23 per cent, said they did not see any benefit to getting involved.
Awareness generally was higher among optometrists than dispensing opticians, with an average of 45 per cent of practitioners seeing opportunities for community services due to pressure on NHS budgets. The opportunity to start new negotiations with commissioning groups was seen by 28 per cent, just 22 per cent thought no benefits would flow from the changes.
Awareness of the Public Health Indicator for eye health was less rosy, with just 7 per cent aware of its introduction and involved with making teams aware. A quarter of those questioned were aware of it but were not actively involved, while 31 per cent had heard of it but didn’t know what it was. Nearly 38 per cent had never heard of it.
A full report on the research, which also looked at practitioners’ attitudes towards local optical committees, will be published in the September 13 issue of Optician.
By Chris Bennett.