Chief executive, Adam Sampson, urged the Health Secretary to “engage with the skilled primary care workforce” and emphasised the role of optometrists
The Association of Optometrists has expressed “deep concern” over the Government’s newly-released plans for the NHS in England, suggesting the plans “fail to understand” the role of primary care in addressing the challenges facing the NHS. Health and Social Care Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, Thérèse Coffey, announced the plans on Thursday 22 September. The new measures aim to improve care for patients “this winter and next.” Through Our Plan for Patients, the Health Secretary set out actions addressing challenges facing the NHS, particularly targeting backlogs in care, long ambulance waits, and the availability of GP and dentist appointments. Responding to the plans, Adam Sampson, chief executive of the AOP, said that while the association “wholeheartedly agrees” with the sentiment of the announcement, “it is clear that the plan does not understand the primary health care family that ultimately is the answer to the high-quality and safe care every patient deserves.” “We’re facing a growing healthcare crisis where demand for services is at an all-time high,” Sampson commented. With close to one in three (32%) patients currently visiting their GP for eye care complaints, he highlighted: “there is a simple solution that is largely being ignored.” “Like pharmacists, the network of community-based optometrists working in High Streets up and down the country provides a huge potential resource for the NHS to use and help alleviate the pressure on GPs. “And unlike stretched ophthalmology teams working in hospital departments, optometry has no significant shortage of staff and is already trained with the clinical skills needed to deliver expert care,” Sampson explained. Emphasising that the challenges faced by the NHS must be addressed in a plan that is “forged alongside the healthcare professionals that deliver care,” Sampson said: “We therefore urge the Minister to engage with the skilled primary care workforce – of which optometry is a part – that is ready to protect the NHS now and have a meaningful impact on the lives of patients.”
Read the statement in full on the AOP website.
Reaction to the new plans has been mixed across healthcare. Chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England, Thorrun Govind, said: “As we look beyond the pandemic and amid constrained public finances, it will be crucial to draw on all our health professions to support the NHS recovery and tackle the COVID-19 backlog.” Govind said it was “great to see plans to make the most of pharmacists’ clinical knowledge” in improving access to contraception. “However, like the rest of the NHS, pharmacists are under significant pressure and need to be properly resourced to carry out these additional services,” Govind added, calling for a more “ambitious approach” to advancing the clinical role of pharmacists and a comprehensive workforce plan. One of the key focuses of the new NHS plan is on access to NHS dental care, with the Government suggesting it would make sure incentives are in place within the NHS dental contract and has begun providing more targeted funding to support dentists caring for patients with complex needs. In October, NHS England will issue guidance on how to deliver care under the NHS contract using a wider range of dental professionals. The British Dental Association (BDA) warned that the Government “needs to show real ambition to bring NHS dentistry back from the brink,” suggesting that the plans “offered nothing new, simply revisiting minor ‘tweaks’ to the contract announced before summer recess, which do nothing to improve access, or halt the exodus of dentists from the NHS and had no additional funding attached.” Recent BBC research found that nine in 10 practices are unable to take on new adult NHS patients. BDA chair, Eddie Crouch, said: “Underfunding and failed contracts can be fixed, but we need real leadership across Whitehall.” Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs, called it a “shame” that the Health Secretary had not spoken to the College or its members to hear what was needed from those on the frontline. Commenting that while access to services is important, it is “only a starting point,” Marshall said: “GPs share patients’ frustrations when we cannot deliver the care we want to deliver in a timely way. But we are caring for an increasing number of patients, with increasingly complex health needs, and carrying out more consultations every month than before the pandemic – yet with fewer qualified, full-time equivalent GPs than in 2015.” Around 85% of appointments in general practice are already happening within two weeks of being booked, the College said, and 44% are delivered on the same day they are booked. The membership body called for a new recruitment and retention strategy beyond the target set in the Government’s election manifesto, a change to funding, investment in IT and premises and steps to “cut bureaucracy.”
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