OFNC: 'NHS Covid-19 funding inadequate and unworkable'

New NHS England funding proposals for optical practices working during the current phase of the Covid-19 pandemic have been rejected by the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee (OFNC).

The OFNC put the revised proposals forward on June 16 and said NHS England publicly committed to working with together the following day but didn’t come forward with any new arrangements for over two weeks.

‘Yesterday NHS England put to us for the first time a very limited proposal for temporary further funding, which we rejected as inadequate and unworkable,’ said a OFNC statement issued this afternoon (July 3, 2020).

‘We have written again to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Minister for Primary Care, to ensure that NHS England works with us urgently on new funding arrangements to enable practices to maintain the delivery of NHS services.