Verum writes: Is the industry too well staffed?

In advance of writing this monthly column, it is natural to look around and see what is topical in the world of optics. Sometimes there is nothing particularly newsworthy and then this month, like a number 11 bus, a lot comes along all at once. Optical issues in the national news, College rebrand and General Ophthalmic Statistics, they all caught my eye.

In the media attention has been brought to the fact that more clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have labelled cataracts as PLCV, ‘procedures of limited clinical value’. Never has it been more true that ‘a desk in an office is a dangerous place to make clinical decisions’. Have commissioners read the NHS five-year forward view and local strategic transformation plans, STPs, that both focus (excuse the pun) on the aspiration to have more people living independently, able to look after themselves? How anyone in a CCG can get the idea that ensuring good vision is not to the benefit of an individual is beyond me.