Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster Local Optical Committee chairman, Panos Nicolaou, said he is excited about the prospect of the LOC bidding to provide ophthalmology services in the area following the announcement of a tender process by the local Clinical Commissioning Groups.
The process will is part of a wider plan by the NHS CCGs in London covering the Central, Hammersmith & Fulham West London areas to issue tenders for community ophthalmology services worth between £2.5m and £8.6m over the three years to 2018.
Nicolaou said his LOC was running the bid but was partnering with neighbouring Hammersmith and Fulham to cover its area too. ‘ We are quite excited that they [CCG] have put a tender together. We were concerned last year that we wouldn’t be doing anything. This is a great opportunity for our profession. Over the last few years we have gathered expressions of interest from local contractors and performers and presented Local NHS officials with a business case for the redesign of inefficient and unsustainable ophthalmic service delivery.’
He said the bid would be made on behalf of all qualifying local practices but the detail of exactly what would be covered wouldn’t be known until the tender is published in September.’ We don’t know exactly what it will cover but it looks as though they are going to put up the full range of enhanced services.’
Nicolaou said the decision came following a ‘dramatic U-turn by the commissioners’ as the LOC had been lead to believe that an ophthalmology service redesign was not on the commissioners’ agenda for 2014-2015.
‘If we win the bid, optometrists across our patch of central London, from small independents to huge multiples, will all have the opportunity to do the job that we've been trained to do and get paid to do it,’ said Nicolaou, adding that the limitations of the GOS contract had long been a frustration.
‘This is a great opportunity for our profession. Although it is fun, we didn't become optometrists just to sell glasses,’ he said.
