A rewarding optom career path

Type 2 Diabetes is rapidly becoming a health time bomb. An estimated five million people in the UK are believed to be at risk due to sedentary lifestyles, poor diet and smoking.

Prior to 2006 optometrists were involved in community based schemes for screening and monitoring but the development of a national programme for digital screening within the NHS saw many optometry schemes disappear. For the majority of patients digital screening simply requires an image to be taken and then graded. However, where the image is ungradable or the result inconclusive a follow up visit with a slit amp examination is required. The rate of ungradable images varies throughout the country from as low as 0.7% in Cornwall to as high as 8% in Greater Nottingham.