Practitioners urged to become local heroes

A call to action for all practitioners to get involved in their local optometric and health structures went out at last week's National Optometric Conference.

Speaker after speaker urged optometrists to get involved with the new structures that will appear under the aegis of the NHS commissioning board which is expected to appear once the Health Bill has finished its passage through Parliament.

Helen Hirst, programme director for primary care commissioning at the Department of Health, stressed that the new structures were not just about GPs and all clinicians needed to add their voice and agree to the proposals. Her role was to get all of the professions to support and agreed on the proposals put forward to the commissioning board. 'If my proposals are rejected I will have failed,' she said. 'The old solution of just putting more money in is not the way forward.' This was not sustainable, she said. She insisted the rules had changed and 'we can do what we like' to ensure the right result for patients.