Importance of GOS fee value restoration emphasised during OFNC meeting with minister of state for care

The importance of increasing the General Ophthalmic Services (GOS) fee was emphasised when the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee (OFNC) met the minister of state for care, Stephen Kinnock MP, on 4 November.

Considering the essential national sight testing service delivered under GOS and the infrastructure it provides in offering care outside hospital, “the increasing divergence between fees and delivery costs cannot continue,” the OFNC said.

Representatives will be urging NHS England to make a “sustained effort towards restoration of fee value in upcoming fee discussions,” the group added.

The OFNC is the national negotiating body for eye care in England, working with the Westminster Parliament, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and NHS England.

The valuable contribution that primary eye care makes to the nation and the ways that it can be utilised as part of the NHS 10-Year Health Plan were also discussed during the meeting.

The OFNC was able to set out how primary eye care can assist in meeting the challenges that NHS hospital services are facing, including in preventing blindness and helping people age well and live independently for longer.

The meeting took place at the DHSC, with officials from the department and from NHS England also in attendance.

National commissioning of the Community Urgent Eyecare Service should be seen as a first step in delivering the government’s aim of moving more care from hospitals into communities and would also relieve pressure on GPs and reduce workload in secondary care, Kinnock and officials were told.

The role of IT connectivity in aiding diagnosis was also noted as a priority, with the OFNC emphasising that it would mean easier sharing of data between professionals, more efficiency in referrals management, and increased ability to obtain feedback.

Paul Carroll, chair of the OFNC, said: “We were able to share with the minister our estimates of the capacity that primary eye care can offer to reform the eye care pathway and keep patients out of hospital, which is a key part of the government’s aims to transform the NHS.

“We highlighted the willingness of our sector to do more, but emphasised that this must be underpinned, as Darzi recommends, by the rebalance of investment and decision-making away from secondary care and towards primary care, as the essential ‘prevention and gatekeeper’ service in eye care.”

Kinnock noted that “primary eye care has an important role to play as we move the focus of care from hospitals to the community through our 10-Year Health Plan.”

“It was good to meet with the OFNC to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the sector and I look forward to working with them going forward as we build a health service fit for the future,” he said.

The OFNC will continue to engage with Kinnock and other officials in advance of the multi-year funding review, scheduled for Spring 2025, the organisation said.