What has been apparent for many years to those in optics is now becoming apparent to the National Health Service and politicians – high street optics has a role in secondary eye care.
Hallelujah, you may be thinking, unfortunately there is still a long way to go to turn realisation into change for the tax-paying patient.
There are now 7.6 million ophthalmic appointments in NHS England’s hospitals making it the second largest speciality by size. Add to this the 270,000 eye-related accident and emergency visits and you would be forgiven for assuming vision is a high priority for the policy makers in Parliament and the pen pushers running the NHS.
As Joe Ayling explains this week (In Focus, the Optical Confederation, the Local Optical Committees and their support unit have been working through the All Party Parliamentary Group on Eye Health and Visual Impairment which has resulted in an APPG report calling for government, commissioners and the multifarious bodies involved to act now on eye health.
But things are never simple. The report shows consultants are wary of change while NHS policy-makers and commissioning groups don’t prioritise eye care. Politicians can be persuaded to include eye care in the NHS Mandate and it’s statement of policy objectives but action on the ground speaks louder.
Best practise has been shown in places like Manchester, Newport and Lancashire while the Locsu link up with Newmedica (Optician 20.04.18) could prove a gamechanger. With the high street involved patients get a better service, the profession gets a new string to its bow and the hospitals get some breathing space. Crucially the commissioners get savings which is what will make it happen.
Last October the AIO invited Jim Shannon MP, the chair of the APPG, to its conference and bullish reports followed (Optician 27.10.17). With the APPG pushing optics’ case let’s hope that momentum can be maintained.