Lords debates Health and Social Care Bill

With the government's Health and Social Care Bill now in the House of Lords, optics has continued to work in partnership with the other healthcare professions to make its views known to ministers and peers about the impending NHS reforms.

The Optical Confederation is believed to be working behind the scenes with pharmacy, dentistry and fellow health professional groups, on amendments to the bill that would make genuine multi-professional commissioning a condition of approval and ongoing performance assessment of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).

So far this assurance has not been made clear from the six domain tests published by the NHS commissioning board transition team. The amendments may not become law but it is hoped that ministers will make their positions clearer on these issues in debate.