Visus writes: Optometrists need to speak up and speak with one voice on accreditation issues

Will 2016 be the year that optometry breaks into the mainstream of eyecare in the eyes of patients, doctors, politicians and, heaven forbid, optometry itself?

A recent piece by Trevor Warburton in the January LOCSU newsletter (bit.ly/1nkTLGL) highlights the importance of terminology by making the call for the ‘accreditation’ that has become commonplace amongst first PCTs and now CCGs to be termed ‘validation’. He says, paraphrasing, that optometrists weren’t and aren’t incompetent but they are maybe occasionally rusty for contractual reasons.

The whole concept of accreditation has been suffused with ignorance and a failure to recognise and speak up for what optometrists and DO’s can do with one voice.  At present optometry and dispensing optics are competency-based professions and have been for 15 years or more. That’s at least half of us in practice.