DEADLINE FOR CET AND EQUIPMENT GRANT APPLICATIONS IS 17 MARCH
CET payment allowances
The Scottish Executive has just announced the arrangements for the payment of the CET grant of £270 for the calendar year 2004 (provided a practitioner was on an ophthalmic list in Scotland for at least six months of that year). Applications for the grant must be made by 17 March. Please contact your Local Health Board for an application form.
Equipment allowances
The Scottish Executive Health Department (SEHD) has issued a memorandum about the claiming of the £8000 grant per practice for the purchase of certain equipment, resulting from the new GOS contract for Scotland which comes into affect on April 1. The memorandum has been issued to the Health Boards for urgent distribution to all optometrists and ophthalmic medical practitioners on their ophthalmic lists. Glasgow HB sent out the memorandum to around 400 optometrists on its list last week and many of the letters have been received. It is important that all AOC Chairmen ensure that these letters have already been sent out by their Health Board.
Details of the allowances have been put on the Optometry Scotland website. http://www.optometryscotland.org.uk/
In the meantime, if you have not yet received the memorandum, it can be accessed by clicking on the pdf document on the right hand side of the page.
Given the tight timescale for applicants for the grant, practitioners are advised to read point 2.11 of the SEHD Memorandum (on the right of this page) and consider supplying photographic evidence of the equipment's existence.
