Optometrists at the heart of global plans

Optometrists have been backed to play a central role in the prevention of avoidable blindness on a global scale.

The World Council of Optometry (WCO) has advised the World Health Organization (WHO) that well-trained optometrists providing a broad range of care, including refraction and routine medical eye care, were a necessity.

It was responding to a WHO discussion paper on the development of the action plan for the prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment 2014-2019.

The WCO response supported the need to measure the magnitude of vision loss by collecting and reporting data, which would be in keeping with the Department of Health's recently implemented eye health indicator (News 27.01.12). It also backed further integration of eye health programmes into primary health care systems - another result expected from the NHS reforms.