Letter: Quality of our profession

We were interested to read the debate in the letters on the Opinion pages about independent prescribing and higher qualifications.

When we set up Wopec at Cardiff University, six years ago, we created a website to have a capacity for 1,000 learners. At the time we thought that was ambitious. Today we were astounded to welcome our 10,000th learner.

Optometrists from Wales, England and Northern Ireland, funded by Locsu, LOCs, governments, health boards, CCGs or companies have done distance e-learning courses, on glaucoma, pre and post-operative cataract management, minor/acute eye conditions, low vision and eye care for people with learning disabilities. In addition, we have accredited more than 4,000 optometrists in clinical station assessments; more than 2,000 in the past year alone. Postgraduate taught courses have also been very popular, especially those accredited for higher professional qualifications in glaucoma, low vision, medical retina, paediatrics and independent prescribing and many are over-subscribed each semester.