Leaders at Specsavers have told thousands of its partners to be ready to alleviate growing pressures on the NHS.
More than 1,200 Specsavers store partners and support staff heard about the group’s vision for the future at its annual seminar at the Birmingham ICC on November 28.
Professor Harrison Weisinger, who also presented at Specsavers’ Professional Advancement Committee meeting in October, said Specsavers was well-equipped to help take the strain from hospitals.
He said: ‘Hospital eye department budgets are driving more primary care to the high street and advancements in technology are going to allow optometrists to do this work.’
Prof Weisinger also warned that some of the developments in auto-refraction could end up replacing opticians if practitioners failed to keep up with customer trends.
Specsavers’ joint-chief executive officer John Perkins told delegates at the event: ‘Today has been about our vision – inspiring and passionate. Our partnership has never been stronger than it is today, and I cannot imagine a more inspiring, invigorating and rewarding time to be working at Specsavers.’
Also at the seminar, the company’s chairman, Doug Perkins, led a discussion on how the profession can raise its clinical profile to support the health sector. Economist Roger Martin-Fagg discussed how the pressures on the NHS would ‘never ease’ but high street providers could play a vital role in alleviating them.
Martin-Fagg said that alongside taking on NHS work, there was also the ability to provide private services to a new generation of consumers who were willing to pay for an immediate service rather than having to wait.
