The role of the optometrist in the nation's eye health was highlighted at the Labour Party conference in Manchester this week.
The Eye Health Alliance, Alzheimer's Society and The Royal National Institute for Deaf People fringe event was entitled 'Getting in early: transforming care through early diagnosis and intervention'.
The meeting heard from optometrist Ed Bickerstaffe who detailed a pioneering referral refinement scheme in Manchester, designed to keep people out of secondary care and save the NHS money. He also praised the Welsh PEARs scheme, describing its cost effectiveness and how it ensures patients receive high quality care close to home, reducing the burden on over-stretched hospital eye clinics.
Bickerstaffe told the meeting that high street optometrists were ideally placed to offer a nationwide service to help prevent, monitor and treat a range of eye conditions.
He went on to explain how practices have invested a great deal of their own time and money into upgrading the technology within their outlets and training their staff. 'The result is a first class service which is currently under utilised,' he said.
The Eye Health Alliance has taken the opportunity to remind MPs at the party conferences of the need to increase the take up of eye exams for prevention and early diagnosis of eye disease by retinal scans. The fringe event is to be repeated at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.