For the first time there are more female than male optometrists practising in England, the latest General Ophthalmic Service (GOS) workforce statistics for England and Wales have revealed.
Official workforce figuresfor England, compiled by the NHS Information Centre, as at December 31 2008 show that there were marginally more female optometrists (4,604) than male (4,595). These figures are vastly different from a decade ago when male optometrists accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the workforce. However, figures for December 31 2007 had indicated that the gap was closing with 47.3 per cent of working optometrists being women.
Figures also revealed that there were 9,540 ophthalmic practitioners in England during the assessed period. However, according to the report authors, comparisons with previous years could not be made because of the changes to the way figures were calculated due to new regulations. 94.4 per cent of practitioners were optometrists and the remainder were ophthalmic medical practitioners (OMPs).
There were no changes to the way GOS workforce figures were calculated in Wales and they revealed that there were 734 ophthalmic practitioners, an increase of 26 (3.7 per cent) on the previous year. 96.9 per cent of the practitioners were optometrists, with the remainder being OMPs.
Official figures for Welsh practitioners by gender revealed that there were more male optometrists (381) than female (330) as of December 31 2008.