About three years ago I called for a vote of no confidence in the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee (OFNC) at the National Optometric Conference in 2014. My request was not granted and the vote never took place. Since then, very little has changed for the positive in terms of GOS fees, indeed there was a even a threat of a fee cut at the last official announcement.
While little has changed within GOS, a lot has changed in my professional career in those three years, most notably being elected to the AOP Council in 2015. I am now pleased to announce that the AOP has kindly given me the honour of being one of its representatives to attend OFNC meetings, with my first attendance scheduled for October 2017.
Clearly having been critical in the past, I would like to pledge that I will do my utmost to increase the prosperity and sustainability of the optometric community via my involvement in this role within the OFNC.
One of my perceived issues historically with the OFNC, was that there was poor transparency in the process and few channels for stakeholder dialogue, other than the published annual statement. I therefore welcome any comments and suggestions from the readership, particularly those in my north-west constituency, that I will happily take along to the next and future OFNC meetings, for discussion and possible implementation.
ian@gosreform.co.uk