England

25 March 2021

The Department of Health and Social Care has said  it will increase GOS sight test fees by 1.9 per cent from April 2021. The GOS CET allowances and pre-registration supervision grants will also rise by the same percentage.

The fees for GOS sight tests in England were last increased in April 2015 by 1per cent. Since then the sector has seen five consecutive years with no fee increase, while contractors’ costs have continued to rise.

The OFNC had pressed for urgent action to address the widening gap between NHS sight test fees and inflation, and the relative underfunding of primary eye care compared to other NHS care.

Paul Carroll, OFNC Chair, said: “The 1.9 per cent increase, welcome though it is, does not fully address the erosion of GOS fees by inflation in recent years.”

“After 5 years without any increase to reflect the rising costs of care, a 1.9 per cent increase in GOS fees now will understandably disappoint a loyal and hard-working sector, which has gone the extra mile in keeping eye care services running over the past year when hospital care was often just not available. Nevertheless, we take it as a signal that the Government and NHS England have at last understood the value of primary eye care and the need to move towards fairer treatment of GOS contractors in the future.”

“We hope this is the first small step on a journey to a properly funded national sight-testing infrastructure to help meet growing eye health need, focus on prevention and deliver more care outside hospital closer to home.”

Read the OFNC response letter here

Read the Department of Health and Social care letter here

Read the OFNC case for increase here

29 October 2019

Yesterday Primary Care Support England (PCSE) launched the online Ophthalmic Payment service, which is now live. This means that all users of the PCSE Online service can now submit GOS 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 forms online.

The full service, has also incorporated feedback from their early adopter users, to deliver even better functionality. This includes the auto population of claim values in GOS3 vouchers based on prescription entered, which will greatly improve the accuracy of claims.

PCSE will also be introducing some additional enhancements over the coming weeks, as a result of early adopter feedback including:

• extending the time out on the signature capture on GOS claims
• allowing a Performer to create a GOS3 once they have signed the declaration on a GOS1, which improves the workflow as they don’t need to wait until the GOS 1 has been submitted.

They expect to have these upgrades deployed by mid-November.

Updated User Guides will also be available for all GOS forms soon. These will include step by step instructions on submitting GOS4s, PVNs and GOS6s, and updated information on GOS1, GOS3 and GOS5. You can find out more via their website.

If you have any questions, please do get in touch with the team via pcse.optomengagement@nhs.net

ABDO, as part of the Optical Confederation, are still engaged with PCSE and NHS England regarding the cut-off date for submission of paper claims and we will keep our members informed regarding this and other updates.

Regional Lead: Abi Page FBDO
Email apage@abdoregions.org.uk

Local Leads

Natasha Beckwood FBDO

Jayshree Vasani FBDO

Ian Anderson FBDO

Email your local lead using the format initialsurname@abdoregions.org.uk