Eye health messages to the public have never been more high profile so it seems apposite that the All Party Parliamentary Group is calling for evidence ahead of an Inquiry into NHS Eye Service capacity.
The tone of the announcement resonates with the jargon of the NHS, with blindness and ophthalmology at its heart. But in today’s world is it realistic to look at secondary eye services without embracing high street optometry?
Vision Express’s CEO, Jonathan Lawson, pointed out in an interview with Optician last week that the optical profession has not been very successful in getting its message across. Taking Vision Seriously is VE’s mantra but if the UK population suddenly did take its vision seriously could high street opticians cope? Probably not, in the short term at least.
Imagine the impact on hospital eye services if optometry was seeing a couple of million extra patients each year. Add to that the sudden influx of new practice technology driving up referrals as better imaging throws up more need for further investigation. I am not suggesting optometry is the source of the NHS’s capacity problems but it could certainly help with the solution.
There is no need to have an inquiry to show there is a capacity problem in the eye service; there is one. What an inquiry can do is highlight some ways to overcome those capacity problems. There is only one sector that can ameliorate those problems – the primary sector.
The APPG call makes clear the inquiry’s scope doesn’t cover refractive error. Luckily the scope of optical practices is also much wider. Optical practices should inform the APPG how they can work with hospitals to ease the pressure on secondary care.