The launch, which took place in Leicester last week, was the first of four events outlining the patient pathways developed by the Department of Health's eye care services steering group. It was the culmination of 18 months of progress on four areas key to the Government's plans to improve eye care, and the launch series will end later this month with an address from health minister Rosie Winterton at an event in London.
Four 'patient pathways' for glaucoma, cataract, AMD and low vision services were formally announced at the meeting, and Whitehall hopes the pathways, which highlight optometrist involvement, will be trail-blazers and help reduce waiting times and vision loss. In addition, there will be £4m spent on innovative pilots following the launch of the plan.
At last week's event David Hewlett, the DoH's head of dental and optical commissioning group, suggested that Winterton would announce the successful bidders for the pilot schemes at the final event in the series.
In response to questions on further funding from delegates at the Leicester seminar, Hewlett said that 75 per cent had gone to PCTs to be used appropriately Ð but the unofficial line, he revealed, was that the more GOS issues were raised to government by the profession the more extra funding would 'be seriously looked at'.
'The more feedback from events like this which point out that funding is an issue, the more we can put this before ministers and influence change,' he commented.
A detailed feature on the launch event will be published in next Friday's optician.
Ask for extra ophthalmic project funding and it may be granted was the message from the launch of the National Eyecare Plan.