Chris Bennett: Enhancing the profession through additional services

Enhanced services and community pathways have never had such a high profile within the profession.

Unless your business model is based on private practice you will need to get involved with the schemes your Local Optical Committee is busily working away to develop. 

If ever evidence was needed the feedback from last month's NOC ( 07.11.14) made clear the NHS's intention to shift services from the secondary to primary sector. This requires retail optics to involve itself in schemes to work effectively with the secondary health sector to secure NHS funding and offer services in the community.

From here on in things start to get tricky. The NHS is an organisational nightmare. There is little consistency about how services are commissioned, from who or on what basis. In some areas ophthalmologists and optometrists cooperate effectively, in others never the twain shall meet. Reinvention of the wheel in contracts is the norm. Responsibilities are spread across a plethora of groups but all routes lead to the local Clinical Commissioning Group.