Bill Harvey: Tell them about our services

Some months ago I was involved in a project in a care home in the south-west of London. Among the things we wanted to find out was the attitude of these elderly and largely well-educated people towards optometrists. The first point that clearly came across was that a majority had not yet heard of the term optometrist, though some were interested to equate it with the older description of ophthalmic optician. Nearly all, therefore, thought of ‘opticians’ as spectacle sales people. When asked about services for eye care, the majority relied on their GP, less so upon their pharmacist, and a significant few still went to the walk-in service at their local hospital for many minor eye ailments.