Forty per cent of local optical committees (LOCs) do not know their general practitioner (GP) leaders and commissioning groups well, while 9 per cent don't know them at all, according to the results of the LOC Central Support Unit's (LOCSU) review survey.
However, a quarter of the 65 out of 88 LOCs that responded, said they did know their GP leaders and commissioning groups fairly well, while 18 per cent knew them very well and 5 per cent extremely well.
To help meet future challenges such as the devolution of health service finances to a local level through GPs, LOCSU asked LOCs five questions about their working relationships with other professionals. It presented these along with other results from its survey at the National Optometric Conference from November 4-5.
Worryingly, 55.5 per cent of LOCs said that they didn't know their local patient groups well and 20 per cent didn't know them at all. None claimed to know them extremely well, while 3 per cent said they knew them very well and 15.5 per cent fairly well.
A positive 34 per cent of respondents to the survey taken in September said that they had an excellent relationship with their optometric adviser, while 23 per cent described it as good, 14 per cent as neutral and 6 per cent each for poor and appalling. Another future challenge for LOCSU was identified when over half of respondents revealed that they didn't know their director of public heath well (39 per cent) or at all (29 per cent).
LOCSU received a boost from the responses to questions about its services, with 73 replying that they always found LOCSU staff and associates approachable. A further 90 per cent disclosed they were always (48 per cent) or usually (42 per cent) able to obtain advice when they needed it.
