Comment: Community care

This spring’s National Health Service reforms were met with more of a whimper than a bang by the optical profession when they finally took place, but the latest research from Optician gives much cause for hope (see news). There are many things to trouble an optical professional. Being part of a hybrid service dishes up a double whammy of retail and healthcare hurt. It is perhaps no surprise then that when the government announced it was to reorganise the NHS, yet again, there was an attitude of depressed resignation. What soon became apparent was that this latest reorganisation may actually make a difference. The power of commissioning of primary health, including eye care, was to be shifted to GPs through clinical commissioning groups and the much maligned primary care trust would cease to exist.