Letter: Doctors of optometry and not medicine

To our learned and much respected colleagues, we thank you for your responses [In Focus 29.09.17 ‘Profession responds to calls for doctor title’].

However, we must also ask should dentists and veterinarians attend medical school to become doctors? These professions do not suffer any confusion with physicians. Their titles (the prefix Dr) have allowed them to be recognised for their clinical expertise and contributions. The future of optometry and eye health in the UK relies heavily on the medicalisation and the identity of our profession as health professionals not retail workers.

The public does not seem to understand what an optometrist is (see the latest Comres report if you have any doubt and even the journalist who collected the responses referred to us as opticians with no prefix, ie ophthalmic optician). We are viewed by some as sales associates and our eye exam as a retail experience. Without medicalisation how can optometry begin to take the pressure off an overburdened ophthalmology service?