Ask the experts

With optical professionals being urged to increase their scope of practice, keeping a firm grasp of the regulations has become evermore important.

One of these opportunities, the possibility of independent prescribing, was explored by Rakesh Kapoor, store director of Specsavers, Wembley and Broadwalk, who works as an optometrist with special interest.

He said prescribing work enabled practices to offer something different and distinguish themselves.

‘The main reason I got involved with IP was to build practice referrals,’ he said. ‘It’s not just about testing eyes now, it really is talking about healthcare overall, being able to refer to doctors and talk to other healthcare professionals in the way they talk.