Scots express concern over GOS payments

Assistant director (dental and ophthalmic) Common Services Agency, Bob Anderson gave an overview of the role of the agency and its structure. He explained the introduction of scan capture and computerised data handling of GOS forms, the Optix system, to eliminate regional variation in payments. The convenor of the clinical and ethical committee of the Scottish Committee of Optometrists, Stephen McPherson spoke on the controversial subject of intervals between sight tests and presented the results of a questionnaire on the attitudes of Scottish practitioners. He said that there was 'some concern' following the introduction of the coding system at the end of last year. Mr McPherson told optician that practitioners were confused. 'I think there's an underlying concern that although they feel they're doing the right thing, the NHS might feel differently'. He added that the NHS was so concerned that it had set up a new unit in Scotland to look into ophthalmic fraud. The audience criticised the optometric advisor to the CSA, Dr Sudi Patel, when he stated that the survey was meaningless because of the sample size. Deputy chief executive of the AOP, Richard Carswell, urged Dr Patel and the CSA to review the data for future discussion. Former chairman of the AOP, Donald Cameron spoke about the AOP's guidance on eye examinations, stating that NHS tests were under-funded and, he believed, would remain so. He said optometrists were being limited by funding: for example, the NHS did not fund the full glaucoma test. If optometrists did not place more value on their own service, they could not expect it from the public.