In Focus: Fall out from fees debacle

Hopes were dashed last week when the government announced that from April 1, 2024 the GOS sight test fee would increase by just 39p to £23.53 in England.

Equally disappointing, there would be no increase in the domiciliary visiting fee nor in the pre-registration training grant nor, for the second year running, the CPD grant.

In early negotiations, the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee (OFNC) highlighted to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England that the NHS pays less than 50% of the cost of a GOS sight test.

Taking into account wider NHS cost pressures, the OFNC proposed a ‘reasonable’ increase of £2.86 to the NHS sight for 2024/25 and at first, the government appeared to be listening.