Labour's recent proposition, voiced by shadow health minister Karin Smyth at the Institute for Government (IFG), suggests a shift in handling certain eye conditions to high-street opticians. This move aims to address the significant backlog in NHS eye care services, with current figures showing about 620,000 patients awaiting treatment and 17,000 of them for more than a year.

The party's plan involves negotiating a national deal to allow routine outpatient eye care, such as cataract pre-assessments, operation follow-ups, and glaucoma monitoring, to be conducted in high-street opticians using the existing budget. This approach is proposed as a means to alleviate the pressure on hospital services, potentially enabling specialists to focus on more critical cases.

Support for this plan comes from various quarters, including expert ophthalmologists. Prof Ben Burton, President of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, commented that it was a “positive commitment to supporting eye care patients and we would offer our clinical expertise to shape this policy if delivered in government”.

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Sources:

1. The Guardian:
   Opticians.