- I read with interest the article 'Caring for Individuals' (December 8) and find that some of the statements are to say the least quite basic and obvious. I have been an optometrist who has undertaken domiciliary services before the additional visiting fees could be claimed and remember only too well when optometrists felt that it was not 'proper' to do visits as 'a full test couldn't be done at home'.
Time has gone on and now many companies offer home visits and have developed big turnovers. This is a good thing and now the housebound and elderly can receive good eye care at home. What is not good is the excessive and somewhat aggressive marking some of these companies do to boost their numbers.
The article raises two points that I find interesting though. One of these states that the person who is going to be visited gets a call to say that an optometrist is going to call! Fairly obvious I would have thought, but the other more important point is to state that if there is a cancellation en route, another appointment can be slotted in.
Quite how this can happen when prior notification to the PFT is necessary is something I can't quite work out. Are the rules being ignored? Or people 'slotted in' as 'emergencies'?
On a different note. The conference report (Hospital Optometric Conference) details two optometrists as 'specialists'. What does this term mean?
Raymond D White
Leeds