Simon Jones: The waiting game

When your business has had what’s most likely to have been the most turbulent year it has ever experienced, the last thing it needs is a double whammy of remuneration hold ups from contractors such as Primary Care Support England (PCSE) and Primary Eyecare Services (PES). But that’s what practitioners up and down the country are experiencing and it’s putting livelihoods at risk.

The delay in payments from PCSE to optical practices undertaking ophthalmic services on behalf of NHS England is the latest episode in a tumultuous period since outsourcing ‘specialist’ Capita was appointed by the NHS in 2015 in a deal worth £330m over seven years. In that time, optometrists, GPs, dentists and pharmacists have all felt the effects of Capita’s blunders.