Marco Wren: A double vision for optometry

We as a profession have long been aware of an overwhelming tide of rising appointments swamping our hospital eye services. Multiple local initiatives have sought to divert a growing number of these to competent optometrists in primary care, providing a lifeline to both overwhelmed NHS staff and to patients worthy of quality care. These initiatives are not only to be commended as both smart and forward thinking, but embraced as the only logical solution to an otherwise disastrous future reckoning.

As primary care practitioners we should first strive for clinical excellence, accurate referral and patient management. However, I believe there exists a conflict of interest in some parts of the profession where optometrists are encouraged to see ever greater numbers of patients, produce high conversions and to upsell lens products. In these situations restrictions on time, the number of tests which can be performed during each eye examination, result in both high numbers of unnecessary referrals and potentially missed opportunities for the early detection of ocular pathology, both of which place further burden on hospital eye services.