Instigator of the PEARS scheme, Ted Arbuthnot, has stepped down from the South East Wales regional optical committee and as a board member of the Vale Local Health Board.
Instigator of the PEARS scheme, Ted Arbuthnot, has stepped down from the South East Wales regional optical committee and as a board member of the Vale Local Health Board. The Primary Eyecare Acute Referral Service, which he was instrumental in starting in the Principality, has been much lauded since it began in November 2000.
Speaking at a special dinner to mark his departure, Helen Tilley, chairman of the South East Wales regional optical committee, said Arbuthnot had pushed forward the boundaries of optics in Wales, and his ‘levelheadedness and clear thinking would be much missed’.
‘You have given us PEARS, direct referral, put the glaucoma ball firmly in our court, promoted clinical governance in our area among many other things,’ she said. ‘I envy the way you can look at the overall picture and calmly provide solutions to difficult and what seem at the time insurmountable problems usually posed by awkward adversaries.’
Arbuthnot, who is based in Barry, South Wales, was presented with a commemorative plate as well as two wooden pears to mark his initiative.
Read more about PEARS in our February 15 2002 edition.
