Adam Sampson: “Our profession offers a small ray of hope”

However, one of the few areas that can be more clearly attributed to the CEO is shaping the organisation’s strategy, though even here, much of the heavy lifting is shared, not least with our Board.

Even just a cursory look at healthcare budgets makes the direction of travel clear: mounting pressures on overall health spending, driven not only by doctors’ pay settlements but also by allocations to Integrated Care Boards, are set to leave little room for primary care

Setting the path and how to get there

For those of you who are interested, the AOP’s latest updated strategy went live on our website this week. Yet we should be clear: what is important here is not just the Strategy itself and what it says, but the process of its creation. It is the act of asking yourselves the question: where are we trying to get to, and is what we are doing the right way of getting there? It is the act of strategic review which is important. The document that comes out of it is of course a useful statement of intent and a vital guide to the activity you are planning to undertake in the foreseeable future. And that’s exactly what our new strategy does. But we need to recognise that any such Strategy is arguably always going to be a bit provisional.

Why provisional? Well, as one past Prime Minister once put it, “Events, dear boy, events.” We have been working on our strategy since the summer of last year. As you will see, one of our key beliefs was that the economy, while still under significant strain, could be through the worst part of the trough and government spending would start to ease during the second half of the Labour administration, giving some possible fiscal headroom for greater spending on healthcare in general and community optometry in particular. But the US President’s sudden decision to launch an attack on Iran, with the consequent predictable impact on the world economy, only adds further to Rachel Reeves’ woes. And more parochially, the political turmoil of the past few weeks (which the local election process is unlikely in any way to settle) means that any predictions about the direction of government policy should be taken with a very large pinch of salt.

That said, several points are already coming into focus. First, even just a cursory look at healthcare budgets makes the direction of travel clear: mounting pressures on overall health spending, driven not only by doctors’ pay settlements but also by allocations to Integrated Care Boards, are set to leave very little room for primary care. Of what remains, a disproportionate share is likely to be directed toward the GP sector. The Optical Fees Negotiating Committee will, of course, make every effort to secure the best possible deal in this year’s General Ophthalmic Services negotiations with DHSC and NHS England, but we should be realistic about the probable outcome.

At a time where most parts of the system are creaking to a halt, we in primary care optometry can offer quick, deliverable and affordable solutions both to improving patient access and to reducing the pressure on secondary care

Second, and on a more positive note, regardless of who is leading the Government or shaping the health brief, the broad direction set out in the 10-Year Health Plan is unlikely to shift significantly, and ministers will continue to search for tangible ways to improve patients’ experience of the NHS.

At a time where most parts of the system are creaking to a halt, we in primary care optometry can offer quick, deliverable and affordable solutions both to improving patient access and to reducing the pressure on secondary care. In a world which is looking increasingly bleak, our profession offers a ray of hope.

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Negotiating on behalf of the optometry profession

New OFNC chair, Paul Carroll, and secretary, Peter Hampson, give OT an insight into the work that goes on behind the scenes