Adam Sampson: “There is plenty of influencing to be done”

If the past few weeks demonstrate anything, they confirm the sense that the coming year is set to be a busy one.

On January 6, we received the announcement of the new NHS “online hospital” service, which is apparently set to make eye care services part of its core offer.

The following day saw the launch of the consultation on the Government’s proposed new road safety strategy, including the long-campaigned-for obligation on older drivers to have a regular sight test to assess their continued fitness to drive.

In the broader NHS, the pace of change is continuing to ramp up, with integrated care board (ICB) reforms, and more details about the delivery of the 10-Year Health Plan emerging daily. And within our own sector, the General Optical Council (GOC) has launched a consultation on CPD obligations,and is preparing to roll out important new proposals on remote sight testing.

If keeping up with all the developments is difficult enough for a policy worker like myself, for busy eye care professionals in consulting rooms and clinics up and down the land, it must be well-nigh impossible. Fortunately, we can rely on the skills of the AOP’s dedicated policy and external affairs teams, whose role it is to track what is happening out there. We don’t have to worry about missing something; they won’t.

But given the potential for such initiatives to radically impact the profession, tracking change is not enough. What we must do is not merely sit back and passively observe what is going on, we need to seek to influence all these initiatives. And there is plenty of influencing to be done.

On vision and driving, for example, a lot of the hard work has now been done – and there is no question that the Government would not have been taking this stance had it not been for the AOP’s decade-long campaign, and our recent joint working with The College of Optometrists, to draw attention to the issue. But we cannot take for granted that the policy will be shaped in the way we want. As the consultation makes clear, it is by no means axiomatic that the new eye exams would be carried out in High Street optometry; the consultation suggests that this is only one of a number of ways the policy could be implemented.

And even if the High Street is the way that the Government decides to go – and we will certainly be pushing them in that direction – there is no guarantee that the new work will be open to all providers or that the remuneration will be at an acceptable level. All of these critical elements will have to be fought for.

What we must do is not merely sit back and passively observe what is going on: we need to seek to influence all these initiatives

Changes developing across the profession

This required influence and voice is much the same in relation to all the other planned changes I mention above. Some of what the GOC is considering for its CPD requirements seems fine, but there are also some aspects that pose significant risks that we will need to seek to manage.

Our initial view of the online hospital proposal is not particularly positive, but the policy is so early in its gestation, and delivery is so remote that there is plenty of time to engage with the detail. However, we have been able to ensure that an optometry representative is present on the specialist reference group for ophthalmology, which is a positive first step.

While we welcome the overall direction of travel set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we also recognise the challenge involved in shifting from long-established models of care, and the sustained effort that will be required to move services meaningfully from secondary into primary care.

All of this will take work: careful, determined and occasionally controversial work. Not all of that work will be successful. But it is our mission to defend our members and to try to shape the future of optics in their interests. And that is what we are going to do.

As I say, it is going to be a busy year.