Visus writes: Competency and piecemeal commissioning

Its exciting isn’t it; all over England optometrists are enjoying the fruits of the haphazard divide and rule piecemeal commissioning that is PEARS, MECS, repeat measures and glaucoma referral refinement. Leave aside the lack of national commissioning, most clinically minded optometrists are pleased to be asked to undertake a function that has been long advocated and universally aspired.

But there is an elephant in the room. All optometrists qualifying since 2005 are deemed competent in 75 competencies because of assessment in a “competency framework”. Implicit in this is that every other registered optometrist already on the register is deemed competent across that framework because that is what “entry level CET” is all about; maintenance of entry level competence (or achieving it if you never had it).