The Government's principal emphases are improving quality of care and reducing the inequalities in care delivery which people experience, whether due to where they live, their social status, age, sex, ethnicity, disability or disease.
Optometrists will increasingly provide a structured clinical service, working with other practitioners from different disciplines, to meet specified health care objectives. The benefits of a structured team approach should include:
For advice on how to get involved in the provision of enhanced services, you should contact your LOC and the LOC Support Unit http://www.loc-net.org.uk/locsu/index.html
See also the pdf document at the end of this page entitled " Introduction to Enhanced Services" written by Kevin Thompson, Chairman of the Joint Primary Care Committee. This article provides an overview of the commissioning process and the key factors that need to be considered when developing an enhanced service.
National Eye Health Epidemiological Model
This website allows you to see the number of people affected by eye health conditions in different areas of the UK and provides instructions on how you can access and utilise data which is pertinent to your area. Click on the pdf file below for an overview of the NEHEM model.
Transparency in the provision of enhanced services
The Association of Optometrists, the College of Optometrists and the Federation of Ophthalmic and Dispensing Opticians issued joint advice for LOCs/AOCs and primary care organisations on how enhanced service contracts can be made more transparent, thus facilitating agreements which have the full support of the local profession. This would help to avoid any misleading impressions of claimed superiority, should schemes be limited to specific practices. The advice can be found in the pdf document at the bottom of this page.
