Proposals to allow optometrists to refer patients directly into NHS hospital eye services could help reduce delays and unnecessary GP appointments, says the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK).
The Department of Health and Social Care has announced community-based optometrists will be able to refer patients directly and digitally into NHS hospital eye services with access to relevant patient records to support faster and more accurate clinical decisions.
The move is intended to improve patient access to specialist eye care, reduce waiting times, and free up GP appointments by removing the need for patients to obtain a referral through their family doctor.
Dr Steve Taylor, DAUK GP co-lead, welcomed the change.
No-brainer
Speaking to Pulse Today, he said: “Of all the things that GPs don’t need to be dealing with, eyes is one of them.
“It makes sense that opticians can refer directly regarding eyes. It’s probably a no-brainer.
“It probably just takes a bit of the delay out of the service. If an optician refers to a GP and asks us to refer to the eye hospital, we’re not going to say no.”
Read the Pulse article and Dr Taylor’s comments in full.
We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.
Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.