Actus writes: Holding the sector back?

There was once a time in optometry when the bodies seemed to represent their members well, whatever their background or mode of practice. The Association of Optometrists (AOP) and the College of Optometrists did well by the profession and fought against oppressive employers and dispensing opticians with delusions of refraction.

The profession has been able to get substantially to where the Establishment wanted it to be – qualified with core competencies to provide primary eye care in the community. Yet core competencies don’t seem to be enough.

The work of the Local Optical Committee Support Unit (Locsu) developing pathways for enhanced optical services (EOS), shared care and community monitoring, has been instrumental in engaging independent optometrists and members of FODO (Federation of Ophthalmic and Dispensing Opticians – the employers’ body for opticians in business) who have suddenly woken up to EOS and with the help of the Welsh Optometric Post-Graduate Education Centre (WOPEC), started training optometrists by the thousand.