I noted an interesting comment on an ‘Optometry First’ blog post recently. The basic premise was that there needed to be a break in the link made by the public between optometry and ‘selling glasses,’ otherwise the Optometry First initiative would be an uphill struggle.
Can that link ever be broken? Is the problem actually a perceived link among patients between ‘selling glasses’ and optometry? Or is the problem a lack of appreciation among patients for the importance of eye exams and optometrists’ professional time?
The truth is, and I appreciate this is going to sound like a cop out, it’s a mixture of all those factors, which makes fixing the problem an almost impossible task.
It was refreshing to hear Cubitts founder Tom Broughton talk about the importance of the eye exam to the company’s business model (page 16). Here we have a relatively new company that is going against the grain of traditional optometric retail, but is still putting emphasis on a proper eye exam and for appropriate fee.
Broughton hints at a future where the refraction and glasses are indeed uncoupled from the eye exam and optometry, as per the US, but could that model succeed in the UK?
Many would argue that we’re already heading towards a two-tier optometrist model, because of changes in the retail landscape and the proposed optometry apprenticeship standard. Could we go one step further and have a model where dispensing opticians are performing refraction and dispensing glasses while optometrists focus purely on clinical care? It would be more in line with overseas models and, if we’re being honest, more plausible given the make up of the current workforce.
The author of the aforementioned comment is absolutely correct when they say a link needs to be broken for optometry to flourish. Maybe a better way of breaking that link, though, would be to develop a different practice model where patients can actually tell the difference between roles.