Moneo writes

In the current climate of financial restraint my attention has been caught by two items in the press. The first was the report in the Mail on Sunday a couple of weeks back that stated that Oxfordshire PCT was going to introduce a local incentive scheme to their GPs to try and tighten up the referral service and cut down the number of inappropriate referrals, thereby saving costs.

This may seem to be a sensible idea on the surface and provided it is run transparently the system could work well. But, as usual with the NHS, this incentive scheme relies on the premise that it is only GPs who make referrals. As we all know we have been able to refer patients directly to an eye clinic for some time, and indeed our new contract says that is what we should do in all cases deemed appropriate. I assume that there has been a printing error in the story and that the PCT, being fully aware of the situation, really meant that the incentive scheme was going to be extended to optometrists as well as GPs. Of course, it might be that the PCT gave no thought to the presence of optometry within the NHS or, if it did, deliberately decided to discriminate against clinicians other than their GPs. I would hope that the LOC has taken this matter up with the PCT on behalf of its clinicians.