OFNC joins Spending Review response

The Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee (OFNC) has joined with primary care professions to issue a statement responding to the government’s recently-published Spending Review.

The statement reads: “We welcome the government’s commitment to the NHS reiterated in the Spending Review announcement. We note the government’s commitment, and the Department of Health’s number one priority, to shift care from hospitals to community, and move from sickness to prevention. Primary care providers will be instrumental in driving this reform and are enthusiastic about working together to support these critical shifts.

“However, due to the pressures all parts of primary care are facing due to an historic focus on specialist settings, bureaucracy, and poor workforce planning by NHS England – as well as funding cuts to some of our sectors – it is clear there is little capacity to deliver the reforms needed, and improve the care people receive closer to home, without further investment in primary care.

“The decision regarding allocations within the DHSC [Department of Health and Social Care] budget is the single opportunity in this parliamentary cycle to transform investment into primary care. Of the 1.5 million patients treated by the NHS each day, over three quarters of these interactions take place within the primary care setting: their sole NHS experience. The key to future election success lies with us, working with you.

“We look forward to further details and meaningful actions to be announced in the coming days and we urge the government to work closely with us, as your primary care bodies, to begin the long-term process to rebuild primary care and help deliver on the government’s priorities for the NHS as part of the 10-Year Plan.

“This includes implementing patient-centred, more efficient ways of working and fully funded primary care expansion plans linked to investment directives, cementing primary care’s role in planning, designing and leading healthcare delivery.”

Alongside, Paul Carroll, OFNC chair, the statement signatories are:

• Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair, General Practitioner’s Committee England
• Shiv Pabary, chair, British Dental Association’s General Dental Practice Committee
• Janet Morrison, chief executive, Community Pharmacy England
• Harjit Sandhu, chief executive, National Association for Primary Care Audiology Providers

ABDO is a member of the OFNC.