A New Year often prompts a process of reflection and a resetting of goals for the next 12 months and beyond. Over the coming weeks and months, the Association will review and finalise its policies and put them in the public domain.
One AIO policy that is already clear and unchanging is that the use of the word ‘free’ in optics should be retired. Optics and eye care is demeaned by those that treat the profession as a simple exercise in retailing and bandy around the word ‘free’. In life there is no such thing as ‘free’ and it is particularly galling that government finds it politically expedient to pretend that there is.
A senior member of Parliament opined in private that the government will not address misuse of the word ‘free’ because it would appear anti-consumer. The problem is that we are talking about people’s eyesight and not tins of beans.
It is AIO’s view that offering a ‘free’ eye test is disingenuous and misleading for the public, particularly when the NHS fee is being claimed to fund it (at least in part alongside the cross subsidy from sales of optical appliances).
AIO believes that there is no place for use of the word ‘free’ when it comes to optics. At the minimum, and as a first step, GOS fees should be withheld in respect of the provision of any eye test, or sale of any optical appliance, that is being branded as ‘free’ in any way (and this includes BOGOF offers). Further, if a charge is being levied for a private sight test that is less than the standard NHS fee, only that amount should be claimed back.
The next step should be for the professional bodies that represent optometrists and dispensing opticians to ask their members what their views are on use of the word ‘free’ in optics. They should then adapt their policies accordingly.