Quality in Optometry - A Toolkit for Contract Compliance & Clinical Governance in Optical Practice - England
The Association of British Dispensing Opticians, the Association of Optometrist, the College of Optometrists and the Federation of Ophthalmic and Dispensing Opticians have developed a toolkit, which incorporates guidance on GOS contract compliance and clinical governance for the profession, set against the Department of Health's document 'Standards for Better Health'. It is a comprehensive, web-based guide offering practical help and advice, including links to support documents and websites, to enable practitioners be contract compliant and to establish a firm, clinical governance routine to suit their requirements.
You can access the toolkit via its designated website, Quality in Optometry, http://www.qualityinoptometry.co.uk
Contract compliance
To view the documentation governing contract compliance, contained in the Contract Compliance Framework produced by NHS Primary Care Commissioning for PCTs, please click here
Quality in Optometry - A Toolkit for Clinical Governance in Optical Practice - Wales
This document explains what clinical governance means and its relevance to optometry in Wales. It is set against the Welsh Assembly's document 'Healthcare for Wales 2005' and comprises an introduction, a checklist to be used for a quick assessment of one's current position and a table that shows how the various aspects of clinical governance fit with NHS Wales thinking. You can view this interactive document on the Quality in Optometry website www.qualityinoptometry.co.uk
You can also view the source NHS documents via the Quality in Optometry website, which is divided up into separate sections for England and Wales.
Clinical Governance - Audit of Local Optical Committees/Regional Optical Committees & Area Optical Committees and their arrangements for clincal governance 2007 & 2008
From the audits conducted at the end of 2007 and 2008, there are no LOCs/ROCs prepared to advise local practitioners to provide information to PCTs/Health Boards on clinical governance procedures without being paid. The results of the audits are in pdf format at the end of this page.
College of Optometrists - Clinical Audit Framework for Optometric Practice
This information was published by the College in 2001 and is contained in the AOP's Primary Care Resource Pack, courtesy of the College. This continues to be relevant and can be viewed as a pfd document at the end of the page.
Standard response to PCTs/Health Board enquiries (England & Wales) on payments for clinical governance
The professional bodies - Association of British Dispensing Opticians, the Association of Optometrists, the College of Optometrists and the Federation of Ophthalmic and Dispensing Opticians - have prepared a suggested response in the event of a Primary Care Trust or Health Board asking local contractors to undertake clinical governance procedures. This can be viewed in the pdf document at the end of this page. It stresses the necessity of establishing formal arrangements with ophthalmic contractors on clinical governance procedures. If you need further advice on this, please contact patriciaosullivan@aop.org.uk or geoffroberson@aop.org.uk
