Clause 37 - Assistance and support
Health Bill
5:00 pm
Stephen Williams (Shadow Minister, Health; Bristol West, Liberal Democrat)
The clause makes primary ophthalmic services alongside primary medical and dental services eligible for the assistance and support that is available under the National Health Service Act 1977. During our deliberations, we have heard several references to the NHS in the high street. Optometrists provide important services—not only basic eye tests but screening for various conditions.
The hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire asked the Minister whether, as part of the eye tests, optometrists should look for such conditions as glaucoma. I think she said that either it was not the case or that she would check. When I met optometrists and other professionals in my constituency, I understood that as part of their professional standards they would at least look for such conditions. Whether it forms part of their contract, I do not know. However, the point is that they do it, and it sends patients on a journey throughout other parts of the national health service to obtain the relevant treatment.
I experienced that journey some time ago when, as part of a routine eye test, the optometrist examining my eyes said that at the back of my eye I had a dark patch that needed to be checked because it could have been something serious. However, she could not refer me directly to the Bristol eye hospital's centre of excellence in my constituency. I had to see my GP and repeat what the optometrist had told me, as my GP did not examine me, although he was able to press the relevant button on his computer and send me down the road to the eye hospital. That procedure is rather strange. It is a shame that in the Government's promised review of the general ophthalmic services contracts, they could not consider such matters. Perhaps they will as part of the consultation.
The Government could take some easy steps to bring the ophthalmic services provided on the high street further into the NHS family of operations. We tabled an amendment—amendment No. 120—to help the Minister, but it was not selected for consideration, so I shall refer to it in general. One way of bringing optometrist services into the NHS family would be to put them on NHSOnline.net, other electronic patient record systems, or on the GP referral system to which I have referred. Provided that the patient gave informed consent, it would help the optometrist to track their patient's progress on their journey through the NHS and enable the eye profession to monitor, for instance, how glaucoma was being treated.
The second part of the amendment referred to payments, suggesting that rather than their being made to and collected by the primary care trust, they should have been collected by the NHS Business Services Authority. I heard the Minister say in her remarks on clause 35 stand part that the Government were thinking about it. However, I should be interested to hear from her whether they have considered bringing optometrist services more closely into the family of NHS services, and particularly IT services, so that optometrists could monitor their patients throughout the different stages of the health service.