Practitioners hold key to CL market growth

This was the message of the presidential address to the British Contact Lens Association, given by Nick Loan last week (September 8). Mr Loan, managing director of Bausch & Lomb UK, is only the second BCLA president simultaneously to hold the post of chairman of the Association of Contact Lens Manufacturers. In a presentation putting forward psychological, clinical and commercial perspectives on contact lenses, Mr Loan said that the 28 million people in the UK wearing vision correction presented a 'vast potential' for contact lens wear, yet industry data did not suggest a substantially growing market over the past five years. Contact lens wearers constituted only 9 per cent of visual aid wearers in this country and only 18 per cent of these were aged 45 or over. 'Practitioner recommendation needs to play a greater part,' said Mr Loan. 'We also need to serve the ageing population better.' Data from one study suggested that only 19 per cent of UK practitioners offered a range of contact lens options to patients who came for an eye examination compared with 33 per cent in the US. 'There is a large untapped opportunity to provide additional professional care and patient benefits to millions,' he said. 'Contact lenses and spectacles should not be mutually exclusive. All contact lens wearers should have up-to-date spectacles. All suitable spectacle wearers should be proactively offered the opportunity to consider contact lenses, either for full-time, part-time or occasional wear.' - optician Index data show that the number of new contact lens fits has declined over the past three months.