In the name of consistent and fair editorial coverage, I don’t normally talk about fitness to practise hearings in op-ed columns, but this week’s news of an optometrist who had an average testing time of seven-and-a-half minutes across 48 patients raises some important questions about where high street optometry is today and where it’s going in the future.
I think the best place to start is efficiency, something that all practices and businesses strive for, but should efficiency mean being a slave to a diary?
Every patient is different in their needs and wants from a sight test, which is why, to me at least, putting a figure on the number of minutes an eye exam takes seems a bit strange.
Many practices in the independent sector state testing times of 45 minutes, but would a 30-year-old with mild myopia, really spend that time in the consulting room?
At the extreme opposite end of the efficiency scale, a seven-and-a-half-minute eye exam, as the General Optical Council fitness to practise panel ruled, falls below expected standards.
Even in a world where testing room time has been liberated by delegated functions and pre-testing by other practice staff, expedited testing times do not fulfil the care needs of the patient.
I think it’s important to use the word ‘expedited’ in this instance because optometry businesses of all types are working towards making the eye exam process faster to increase throughput. More patients, more money. Technology has significantly improved the care offered to patients, but it’s important that this is used to genuinely deliver better patient care rather than simply being another lever in making more money.
With greater adoption of artificial intelligence within the optometric sector almost certain, it will be interesting to see how its benefits will be utilised and to what end.
