Profession faces growing threat from Internet, warns D&A chief

Mr Hardy, speaking at the marketing eyecare products seminar hosted by business magazine Marketing Week, said that the Internet would take 10-15 per cent of total retail sales within five years. In addition, he said that practitioners should be aware of the growing perception of 'rip-off Britain' by consumers, and that the entry of US supermarket Walmart would fundamentally affect non-food prices. At the seminar, Bob Hughes, general secretary of the Federation of Ophthalmic and Dispensing Opticians, predicted that new NHS entitlements would cost practitioners &\#163;5m in 1999-2000, based on an average private sight-test fee of &\#163;17.28. This forecast was based on a prediction of two million fewer private sight tests and 3.4 million more NHS tests this year. Boots opticians David Cartwright, director of professional services, commented at the seminar that although optics has a role to play in the Government's new medical walk-in centres, it was not an essential role.