Free the shackles

Moneo Writes makes interesting, if wholly unrealistic, reading in contrast to Verum’s column of the previous week.

Sadly, once the competition genie came out of the bottle there was no going back. The sacrilegious use of healthcare as a loss leader is here to stay.

In the early days optoms were paid a fat salary on the back of this, and the NHS fee was somewhat incidental, a business model that is no longer viable.

Fantasies of embracing deregulation and rebranding the profession as purely a healthcare provider are still firmly planted in cloud cuckoo land.

Moneo writes that perceived costs prevent the public from entering premises. The fact is that specs can be bought for as little as £25. I suggest that the public may be steering clear of those establishments they assume to be expensive, namely the independents. No surprise then that the owners of one well known company are worth £2.5bn.