Increase in NHS tests

Practitioners in England carried out more than 200,000 additional NHS sight tests in the six-month period ending September 2007, when compared to the same period the previous year.

This is one finding in the report General Ophthalmic Service: Statistics for England and Wales: April to September 2007, which examined the services delivered by high street opticians.

The report revealed that 5.52 million sight tests were paid for by primary care trusts in the six-month period ending September 2007, an increase of 3.8 per cent (201,000), when compared to the same period in 2006.

Figures also revealed that PCTs reimbursed 1.98 million vouchers - a 3.1 per cent increase (60,000) on the six months in 2006.