Much has been said about the GOS Review and the launch of the commissioning toolkit by Rosie Winterton in York on the day of the gales, but I would like to share the succinct observation made by Mrs Moneo as she read the articles. Her simple comment was, ‘seems like most of the wind was inside the meeting rooms at York!’
As ever she seemed to capture the mood rather nicely. That being said I do feel that if we as a profession and me and you in particular in our individual lives do nothing, we now run the risk of endangering our future careers permanently. I was pleased to see that the optical bodies have launched road-shows to continue the job they have already started. But why am I so worried? I am assuming that by now everybody has read the results of the GOS review and the commissioning toolkit. If you have not then you seriously need to question your sanity. These documents are so important to your future that you must surely have read them. So with that assumption in place it will not have escaped your attention that now that we have got the government to open up the NHS GOS contract to all-comers, all these new players will be allowed to have a seat around an LOC table. I would expect that locally our low vision charity and our GPwSIs carrying out enhanced services as well as our orthoptists and ophthalmologists will very quickly be looking to get their feet under the table and influence what high street optometry does locally. This throws up the spectre of local optometry being controlled by non-optometrists. Imagine what will happen when major drug companies, for instance, start to deliver services locally. There is a prospect of large industrial firms sitting round the table also. All this concerns me greatly as I know that our local LOC could do and will need to do very much more than it does now if it wants to adequately represent me in the future.
Many LOCs do not know what is potentially about to hit them and are entirely unprepared for the onslaught. In part this is what the joint body road-shows will address I hope. The problem is that the vast majority of optometrists in this country do not seem to give a damn about the future just as long as their pay cheque keeps rolling in.
Well colleagues, those days are over. If you do not take part now your high street profession stands to be decimated by new players. We have created this situation and we will live to rue the day if we do not get active. The AGMs of your LOC are coming up in a few weeks. Go to them. Stand for election. If you think the current incumbents are not representing you make sure you get a committee that will. The future of your and my practice rests with us.