Viewpoint: The Futurist

When the Opticians Act was rewritten in 1989 to include the relaxation of competition rules that allowed practices to advertise their prices, the consumer was the real winner. No longer were Deirdre Barlow and Elton John used to drive sales, but it did lead to phrases like ‘should’ve gone to…’ Successful advertising is now defined by who has the largest budget, but competition isn’t exactly fair when a single company has a 40% market share.

Technology has also changed a lot since 1989. Deep-learning artificial intelligence (AI) can detect a patient’s gender from a fundus image with extremely high accuracy; slit lamps can record an examination so patients can be shown how terrible their lid hygiene is and spectacle lenses can change power with a flick of a switch. We don’t know what technology will exist 35 years from now and this is where the General Optical Council (GOC) has a problem: it can’t regulate a landscape that is changing so rapidly. The GOC needs to make sure the Opticians Act is fit for whatever the future might bring, and they need the flexibility to address these issues. The GOC’s stakeholders have already said it needs to take action now.