I wish you all a very happy New Year as we return to face 2025. It will be interesting to see where we all are one year from now. Will we all be celebrating a substantial increase in the General Ophthalmic Services (GOS) sight test fee? Will we all be restructuring our work patterns as we build in substantial sections of new NHS work as secondary care, in large part, is repositioned to primary care settings? Who knows where we will all be?
Much will depend on whether we are still registered with the GOC. That, of course, depends on whether you successfully completed the last three-year cycle of CPD.
Last December, I spoke to quite a number of optometrists who had still to complete their reflective exercise. It was interesting to note how many approached this last hurdle with scepticism. With this in mind, I got round to doing the exercise myself. How would I approach it?
I admit, at the time, the process did seem all a bit unnecessary. However, having completed it I would like to congratulate the GOC on bringing in such an inspiring element to our CPD cycle. I could have approached it with a closed mind and a degree of pessimism, but by the end, I came away enthused and inspired. I would like to send out a heartfelt thank you to the colleagues I went through this process with.
Our conversation revealed many excellent points and topics for reflection. Probably the best part of the exercise was looking forward to the next cycle and what I would include in my ongoing thinking and actions.
So good was this exercise that I would like to share three things I now believe to be fundamental as I move into the next cycle.
The first was to set up a learning programme centred around delivery of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) within the practice. Would I know what to do if one of my patients collapsed with a coronary? We all know how stressful a sight test can be for some, so surely we should all be aware of the risks to the patient of potential heart attack and how to help them should the need arise.
Also, we all know the amount of stress we are under in our daily lives, so what would happen if it was you, not the patient, who had the coronary? Would you be confident that your staff could intervene to help you? It just seems so sensible to ensure I and my team can deliver this life-saving action, should the need arise.
Having decided this, I switched on the television to watch the football and there, emblazoned on the advertising hoarding around the ground, was a large advert about the importance of being able to deliver CPR and encouraging supporters to enroll on a course to learn it.
If it’s good enough for a few thousand football supporters, then I can’t be too far off the mark including it in my CPD plans for the coming year. I am sure it will be acceptable to the GOC to include this, given the fundamental part it will play in patient safety.
With patient safety in mind, I then turned to another area that again became massively relevant within a matter of days: safeguarding. How seriously do we all take the subject of safeguarding, especially in the light of the tragic reports of the court case highlighted at the end of last year? When was the last time any of us seriously considered whether one of our patients was an ‘at risk’ patient?
I would be interested to know the statistics from optometry of the number of reports filed by optometrists of suspected child abuse in the past year. I have certainly never seen these figures published anywhere. Whose responsibility is it to gather this data? The GOC? The College of Optometrists? The Association of Optometrists? Have any of these organisations collected this data or got access to it? If not, why not? If it turns out that there are few, if any, reports submitted, surely this should be a cause for concern for us all?
From my point of view, this matter is far too serious to ignore and I shall certainly be including learning in this area going forward. At the very least, I want to be confident in recognising the various signs and assured that I, along with my team, know how and to whom to report our concerns. After all, a child’s life could be on the line if I fail.
Lastly, the need to implement a robust stop smoking policy for my patients must be included. Smoking is a killer, but it is also one of the leading causes of preventable blindness. Being able to signpost stop smoking services to my patients must be an integral part of my practising life moving forward.
I hope you will all agree that these three areas are vital to address and maybe you might even consider incorporating them into your new CPD as well.
