Seán McCrave: Irish eye services need to change to meet demand

The Association of Optometrists Ireland (AOI) welcomes an insightful article published in Optician titled, ‘The grass is rarely greener, and certainly not in Ireland’ (Visus 25.08.17).

The article sets out how the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) published the Primary Care Eye Services Review Group Report this summer and described it as a missed opportunity in terms of improving the Irish eye care system.

While AOI contributed to the HSE led report, the Optician article correctly stated that no Irish optometrist was invited onto the review group committee and that the report gave ‘limited recognition of the aspiration of Irish optometry and no mention of any extension in scope of practise into diagnosis and treatment’.