ABDO has welcomed NHS England’s new Strategic Commissioning Framework (SCF) as “a long-overdue opportunity to rebalance investment towards primary care”.
The Association has joined colleagues across the optical sector in welcoming NHS England’s publication of the SCF – recognising it as “an important moment to reaffirm the role of primary eyecare within the NHS and strengthen the foundations for locally led, evidence-based, and sustainable commissioning of services outside of hospital settings”.
The framework sets out clear expectations for integrated care boards (ICBs) in their strategic commissioning role – and signals renewed intent to ensure commissioning decisions are based on evidence, local population needs, and value for patients, said the Association. It also highlights the crucial role of primary care – including primary eyecare – as the bedrock of NHS provision.
Max Halford, ABDO clinical and policy director, said: “ABDO welcomes this framework as an important and long-overdue opportunity to rebalance NHS investment and attention towards primary care. If implemented effectively, it can help start the journey to move both patients and funding from hospital-based services into community and High Street settings – supporting the ‘left shift’ that has been talked about since the publication of the government’s 10 Year Health Plan.
“High Street optical practices, with their established clinical teams of dispensing opticians and optometrists, are ideally placed to play a greater role in preventive and early-intervention care, helping deliver the NHS’s 10 Year Health Plan to move from a sickness to a wellness model.
“The skills, capacity and ambition are already in place across the eyecare sector. We now need to see ICBs deliver this new commissioning approach,” added Max.
The publication of the SCF comes as ICBs take on greater responsibility for commissioning core primary care services, including General Ophthalmic Services.
ABDO said it would continue to work with the Department for Health and Social Care, NHS England, ICBs and sector partners “to ensure commissioning decisions make full use of the skills, reach and expertise of the whole optical workforce to improve access, quality and outcomes for patients”.
Dr Gillian Rudduck, president of the College of Optometrists, commented: “The College welcomes NHS England’s new strategic commissioning framework, which recognises primary eyecare as fundamental to NHS provision and local leadership. The framework marks an important step forward for NHS commissioning, asking integrated care boards to focus on evidence, local needs, and high-quality, sustainable services and in encouraging optometry services to play a key role in the care pathway to improve eye health.”
Harjit Sandhu, chief executive of the FODO Group, said the publication of the framework “marked a reset for NHS commissioning”.
He added: “While the SCF marks a return to getting the basics right, we must remember that local commissioning systems do not always understand or follow NHS guidance. The challenge will be to keep eye and hearing health on the agenda and ensure overburdened ICBs act on the principles set out in the framework. We start this challenge on the front foot.
“FODO, with the College of Optometrists, ABDO, and other partners, has already delivered the UK Eye Care Data Hub – and the National Community Hearing Association has worked with the NHS on guidance for hearing care needs. Robust NICE guidelines and evidence support the need to shift more eyecare and audiology out of hospitals and closer to home within primary care and neighbourhood networks. The key now is to get these resources into the hands of decision-makers.”
Read the full NHS England Strategic Commissioning Framework.
The Association will shortly publish a full review of the NHS England Strategic Commissioning Framework and its potential impact.