Concerns over new NHS planning framework
Planning document unveiled last week
Optical sector bodies have voiced their “concerns” and “disappointment’ that NHS England’s newly-announced Medium Term Planning Framework fails to include primary eyecare.
Heralded by NHS England as “the most radical reset of the NHS in a generation”, the framework lays out a three-year roadmap to “strip out layers of bureaucracy, remove complicated and unnecessary rules, and free up local leaders to get on with the job of delivering for patients”. It also aims to speed up care, and “see 2.5 million fewer patients waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment by March 2029”.
This, says NHS England, will be achieved by transforming how services are delivered – shifting more care out of hospital, freeing up capacity to drive down waiting times – and major improvements in health service productivity. Hospitals will be financially incentivised to ensure more patients are treated out of hospital, instead receiving the care they need from local neighbourhood teams and in community diagnostic centres.
However, the role primary eyecare professionals in these plans receives no explicit mention.
Max Halford, clinical and policy director for ABDO, told DO Online: “ABDO welcomes and supports the NHS’s ambition to deliver faster care and improve access to diagnostics and GP services. It is disappointing, however, that primary eyecare, and the role of dispensing opticians in delivering this care, have not been explicitly recognised in the planning framework.
“Ophthalmology remains the largest out-patient specialty in the NHS and enhanced primary eyecare in the community is key to reducing unnecessary hospital visits and improving patient outcomes. Recent research from the General Optical Council shows that 34 per cent of dispensing opticians are already involved in delivering enhanced eyecare services for their patients. Dispensing opticians are a key part of the multi-disciplinary primary eyecare team and play an important role in supporting long-term eye health.
“We must continue to work as a sector to ensure we tackle gaps in commissioning enhanced services, which is why as a member of the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee we published the recent joint statement with the College of Optometrists and will continue work to develop national frameworks that enable the NHS to deliver consistent eyecare services at local level and tackle the current postcode lottery.”
Dr Gillian Rudduck, president of the College of Optometrists, responded to the planning framework by saying: “…we are deeply concerned by the omission of primary eyecare as a priority opportunity in the Medium Term Planning Framework….This framework is a missed opportunity to commit to universal funding and commissioning of enhanced primary eye health pathways across England as a critical service in Neighbourhood Health Plans.”
Harjit Sandhu, FODO chief executive of FODO, commented that “While the plan does not explicitly mention primary eyecare, it establishes some core operating principles that strategic leaders will pay close attention to, including that top-down reforms are unlikely any time soon and local systems will be expected to drive change.
He added that: “Primary eyecare can find some assurance in the clear commitment to put patients in control of their care, offering them more choice and empowering them to access care closer to home. While the use of non-evidence-based indicative activity plans remains a risk to enhanced eyecare service provision, the latest planning framework helpfully sets out that integrated care boards must increase community health service capacity to meet growing demand, expected to be three per cent nationally per year.”
The Association of Optometrists has issued a policy briefing in response to the publication of the framework – also citing its concern about “the absence of any direct reference to optometry, opticians, or eyecare and eye health”.