Although we’re still yet to see the back of 2023, I’ve been thinking about what I’m looking forward to from 2024 and what I’d like to see happen in the optical sector over the next 12 months.
Top of the list for 2024 is a solution to the bonkers situation in Northern Ireland (In Focus, page 6), where some 150,000 people receiving welfare benefits have lost automatic entitlement to eye care because of a legal technicality and dysfunctional government. Optometrists shouldn’t have to be the ones breaking the news to unsuspecting patients, who themselves shouldn’t have to complete an onerous 22-page application to try to get their benefits back. The College has written to the Department of Health Northern Ireland, so let’s hope legislative change is on the horizon.
I’d also like to see more practices engage with sustainability in 2024. At Optician’s recent Eyes on Sustainability conference, there were plenty of forward-thinking practice owners and suppliers, but there needs to be more. If you’re an NHS contractor, you’ll have to be engaged, because the service’s carbon reduction plan means you’ll have to account for the carbon generated by the practice. Be sure to look out for the sustainability supplement with the December 15 issue and keep an eye open for more editorial and events on the topic in 2024.
Talking of events, I’m looking forward to the Optician team travelling more sustainably in 2024 while attending the multitude of trade shows and conferences the sector has to offer. It would be easy to pull up the draw bridge and say no flying and no to attending overseas events, but that isn’t practical. Instead, we have a responsibility to be more selective about overseas travel and the methods used to get to our destinations. As I write this, a Virgin Atlantic flight is travelling to New York from Heathrow using 100% sustainable jet fuel. Is it the answer? No. But is it progress? Definitely.