Enhancing the profession -- seeing the wider health picture

So much is written about enhanced service provision, community eyecare services, NHS pathways, the transfer of secondary care into the primary sector and other such topics related to the NHS plus securing funding while extending the role of optometrists and DOs.

Despite this tsunami of information these topics remain the toughest for the optician in the street to both wrap their minds around and get to, practically, grips with. It is a frustration of a monumental scale given the skills in the professions and the ability for the NHS to save so much money through the transfer of services from hospitals to the high street ( a sentiment that chimes precisely with the NHS's latest proclamations). Additionally the move brings services to the places patients are comfortable accessing them. Last, but by no means least, it extends the role of the optical professional in a way that breaks the flawed business model optometry is manacled to.