The government’s 10-year health plan presents an opportunity to ‘embrace optometrists as GPs of the eyes’, benefitting patients and the health service, Specsavers said.
Giles Edmonds, clinical services director at Specsavers, emphasised the pivotal role community optometry and audiology could play in shifting care from hospitals to community and from treatment to prevention.
‘The changes we are proposing to eye health and hearing loss care can be delivered in a matter of months, not years,’ he said.
He highlighted the need for national commissioning of key community and primary care services in England, following the example of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
To ensure effective commissioning, Specsavers also stressed the importance of stronger representation of primary care optometry and community audiology on Integrated Care Boards.
