Scotland celebrates new deal

Leaders of the profession in Scotland have acclaimed the new NHS optometry contract, which was revealed in the Scottish Parliament this week.

Significant fee increases (see box below) have been achieved for practitioners north of the border, and a £8,000 equipment grant has also been made available, aimed particularly to help  practitioners based in rural and marginal urban areas.

Celebrating the new deal, Optometry Scotland - the representative body for Scottish optometrists and dispensing opticians - called it ‘the most significant change in legislation concerning the provision of eye care in Scotland in the last 60 years’, setting out measures to place optometry firmly within the NHS as the ‘principal provider of eye care’.

Key benefits have been negotiated by Optometry Scotland in the Smoking, Health & Social Care (Scotland) Act, and the new arrangement was announced by deputy health minister Lewis Macdonald MSP (right).

He said the new eye care delivery plans fulfilled the Scottish Executive’s pledge to introduce ‘free eye checks for all by 2007’. For practitioners not only is there the chance to receive improved funding, but greater opportunities to get involved in co-managed care with hospital-based ophthalmologists.

The new fees will start from April 2006, with increases already planned for the following year, and, after the one-off equipment grant, the annual review will take ‘account of any technological advances ’.