31 March 2015
The Local Optical Committee Support Unit (LOCSU) has released details of the commissioning services which have been won by local optical committees (LOCs) and LOC Companies over the last six months. Cumulatively, the contracts are worth millions to local eye care providers.
Last September, Primary Eyecare (Heart of West Midlands) was awarded a £630,000 contract for glaucoma repeat readings, cataract referral and minor eye conditions service (MECS) by Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).The following month, newly-established eye care companies in Kent and Medway, Norfolk and Waveney, and Sheffield won contracts for a number of services which included IOP repeat readings, glaucoma repeat readings, pre- and post-cataract, children’s post-screening and referral triage.
The latter two schemes, which were secured in Sheffield and scheduled to begin this month, are worth £250,000 and will involve 30 practices across the area.
In November, Primary Eyecare (North East) Limited was awarded a two-year contract with three CCGs which was valued at £145,000.
Since the beginning of January more than a dozen other areas across England have been awarded contracts, or had existing ones renewed. These account for a potential income of over £1m throughout the different regions in 2015.
Commenting on the successes, managing director of LOCSU, Katrina Venerus, told OT: “We are pleased that the number of services and the geographical spread continues to grow.
“The growth of the LOC Company model increasingly means that practices of all sizes can participate in community services. And crucially, the increased use of the OptoManager IT platform is allowing us to build a weight of evidence to support the commissioning of further services.”
LOCSU confirmed that “many more” local negotiations with CCGs are currently ongoing and it looks forward to further success in the coming months.
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