Chris Bennett: Bad omens of sight test fee freeze

Debate has raged over the level of the eye examination fee since it was introduced but its withdrawal could prove painful indeed.

Resignation best sums up the reaction within the profession to the news that the fee will be frozen. Practices may have come to terms with a low level of fee but its removal has the potential to change the market beyond recognition.

The sight test fee is negotiated as part of a raft of allowances and voucher values the Department of Health pays or, in the case of dispensing opticians and CET, doesn’t pay to those in optics. Members of the Optical Fees Negotiating Committee will rightly point out that there is more to the annual round of talk than the level of the sight test fee.