Optometry responds to prescribing plans

Positive responses to the consultation document on proposals to introduce independent prescribing for optometrists have been delivered by the optometry organisations.

The consultation, issued by the Department of Health and the Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in August, outlined five possible routes to expand the role of optometrists to independently prescribe drugs.

In response, the College of Optometrists said it supported option 3 within the consultation document which allowed prescribing for any ocular condition from a limited formulary.

The College went further to suggest that the legislation should not define which conditions should be included in the legislation but that the profession should be allowed to decide what conditions could be treated. It suggested that Chapter 11 of the British National Formulary contained most of the drugs an optometrist might wish to prescribe for conditions encountered in practice.