16 November 2020
Tucked away from the High Street, in a Victorian building with chandeliers and bay windows that overlook a park, Tompkins Knight & Son Optometrists is an optical practice steeped in tradition.
Remnants of the Northampton practice’s 152-year legacy can be found in the 1890s tiled flooring and former stables converted into an academic training space.
But in October, practice staff said goodbye to one aspect of the business that forms part of the institutional fabric of optometry across the UK – the General Ophthalmic Services form.
Anecdotally, whether to continue offering NHS care is a conundrum that many practices in the UK are grappling with as they consider how to remain financially viable in the context of a pandemic.
“The practice has had GOS forms in it since they were green and ancient. The constant paperwork, administration and keeping on top of the forms - we wanted to take all of that away and concentrate on time with the patients and looking after them,” optometrist Brian Tompkins told OT.
“Of course, it was a difficult decision to make, but it is one that many optometrists are currently making. We are not alone,” he added.
The shift to only offering private care has come in the form of care plans, which have been offered at the practice since 2006 but were optional for spectacle wearers.
It is a bit like the AA – you may never need it, but when you do, it is useful to have somebody come out at 3am in the morning to change your tyre on the motorway
Now, every patient who comes through the practice will sign up to a care plan, where a regular payment gives the customer eye care when they need it in a similar manner to a subscription.
It is a change that Mr Tompkins, fellow directors and the practice team have welcomed.
“The whole point of the care plan is peace of mind and continuous care,” Mr Tompkins explained.
“It is a bit like the AA – you may never need it, but when you do, it is useful to have somebody come out at 3am in the morning to change your tyre on the motorway,” he observed.
Regular payments from contact lens wearers on care plans provided a financial buffer to the practice during the challenges posed by COVID-19.
While the practice was seeing limited numbers of patients through the door because of social distancing, there was an opportunity to step away from the day-to-day routine and look at the big picture of how the business was operating.
“When COVID-19 hit, one of the things that saved us from being in trouble, apart from Government financial support, was that we were getting a very consistent direct debit pay in,” he said.
“We realised that the GOS was not fit for purpose – it has not been fit for purpose for a very long time. I think COVID-19 gave us a push. We had time to think and examine our business,” Mr Tompkins shared.
To explain the new way of working the practice produced a video that was shared on social media channels. So far, 1500 patients have signed up to the scheme.
As well as providing patients reassurance, the care plan also gives practitioners flexibility to tailor their treatment to individual needs.
“We can sleep easily at night knowing that if any of our patients have any problem, we don’t have to think ‘We’ve seen them twice now, that means we are going to have to charge them again.’ The pay as you go system is not the practical way to do it for many of the emergency cases and problems that we see,” he said.
Comments (8)
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Anonymous25 November 2020
As an older not particularly tech savvy practitioner trying to deal with GOS is increasingly making me lose the will to practice. Unfortunately my practice is very reliant on GOS work being in a not too affluent area. If I could drop NHS work I would today but we would go broke.
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Anonymous25 November 2020
As an older not particularly tech savvy practitioner trying to deal with GOS is increasingly making me lose the will to practice. Unfortunately my practice is very reliant on GOS work being in a not too affluent area. If I could drop NHS work I would today but we would go broke.
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Anonymous22 November 2020
Yes and we now only offer GOS on 1 day of the week. This means that in these days of reduced availability we have appointments available for our eyecare plan patients, and anyone who wishes to be seen privately with our OCT and Optos included within the next week or two
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[email protected]19 November 2020
OT should added another option to the survey
Yes - but we continue to offer Gos sights test for now. The present English GOS is unsustainable and not fit for purpose.
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Nmccrea19 November 2020
The NHS has been subsidised by both dentists and opticians for many years. The poor reimbursement of shared care schemes has been a further example of the NHS expecting the goodwill of Optometrists to support the underfunded hospital eye services. This was compounded by the lack of respect shown to Optometrists who self funded digital retinal cameras, only to have the payments drastically reduced then taken away. I say good riddance to the GOS and all opticians should be brave enough to join the privatisation.
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Anonymous19 November 2020
It is time to educate patients to value our professional services
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bharat Rughani18 November 2020
Bold decision Brian and Team and best wishes to not do any NHS work.
I wonder if this model would work in practices where there is a large NHS patient base? We have a similar payment plan model but with NHS included.
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Don Williams16 November 2020
I set up my practice (Edgbaston Private Eye Clinic) 3 years ago and never considered GOS. Hats off to Brian and Keyur. I hope that many others follow.
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