With the start of a new year often comes the opportunity for unbounded optimism. I decided to look back over some of the previous Moneo columns I have written for the month of January. What occurred to me is that very often the plans we may make in all good faith at the start of the year can be knocked off course by events. This was, of course, never truer than in 2020.
There may well be times when, despite our best endeavours, there is little we can do to influence events but 2024 is one of those years when we all at least have the opportunity to influence things in a larger way than usual.
This is because this year will see the next general election. Exactly when this will happen is still not yet clear but, as I write this, the pundits seem evenly split between May and October. Either one of these dates affords us all a lot of time within which to act, if we so wish.
Much has been said about the state of the NHS and the horrendous state of eye care services and General Ophthalmic Services (GOS). In the main term of a Parliament, we tend to leave political lobbying to our elected representatives within the profession. A general election affords us the opportunity to influence matters that affect both ourselves and our patients.
I do not intend to revisit the arguments that we are all familiar with around the gross shortcomings of the past, but it was evident from the numbers of practitioners giving up their contracts last year that we are inevitably heading for a time in the future when finding an NHS optometrist will be as difficult as it currently is to find an NHS dentist. This sort of message needs to be rammed home to any candidate willing to hear this message as campaigning starts.
Without taking sides, the evidence at the outset of this general election year points towards a different party being the governing one. Candidates will be looking for a unique campaign angle that is eye catching to their electorate. The NHS will always be a hot topic, therefore to have a unique take on that subject will be what many candidates will seek.
Taking the topic of preventable blindness, considering vision is the most precious sense anyone possesses in most people’s minds, is undoubtedly a powerful stance. To be able to provide a candidate with the failings of the current system, the chronic underfunding, the waste of time, the misuse of the available manpower, is undoubtedly a major headline-grabbing stance. We all know what we could provide patients in need of eye healthcare, if only the system would let us.
In an election year, we all can make this known to candidates and seek their assistance and assurance that they will work to bring about the necessary changes we seek. After all, no candidate would ever wish to be challenged on a ticket of not doing anything to prevent unnecessary premature blindness within their constituents.
We have the opportunity to influence politicians locally in an election year. There is no requirement to be an overt political animal to be able to do this work. Rather, just to have a deep caring for improving the way that we can deliver what we do best in our communities and to ensure that all parts of our local society have equal access to lifelong good vision.
Two simple areas come to mind. Firstly, what care provision is there locally for homeless people, or those in asylum detention centres, to receive high quality eye care? Secondly, what provision is there for those held within prisons to receive the same level of care as those in the community, especially when it comes to diabetic eye disease? There are so many angles to engage candidates with, all of which provide unique opportunities at a local level with which to engage in a way others will not be able to.
So, as we start 2024, let us all think of how we are going to use the opportunity of a general election year to enhance our work as eye care professionals. We could, of course, sit back and do nothing, but if we do that we should not complain over the period of the next government if we do not get things the way we want them.
Rather, let us all plan now how we individually, or via bodies like our Local Optical Committee (LOC), will seek to get our message across. Why not get your LOC to invite all your candidates to a meeting to debate eye care services within the constituency they seek to represent? Such an evening could prove to be the eye opener your locality and your hopeful MP needs.