The Future of the NHS – More Important Than Ever

3 July 2024

Following the recent news of the election, High Street optometry has been highlighted as the future to increased healthcare support and community-based care, bringing localised support closer to patients.

The Labour Party mentioned plans to ‘make greater use of High Street optometry services to cut waiting lists and provide more accessible and convenient care for patients.’ There is a commitment to “shift resources to primary care and community services” creating a ‘Neighbourhood Health Service’.

The Conservative Party has discussed the digitalisation of healthcare, ensuring updated computers are circulated and use the artificial intelligence to be adopted quickly throughout the NHS. However, there was no mention of optometry or primary.

Overall, the integration of optometry and primary care is critical for the future sustainability and efficiency of the NHS within the UK. This will encourage the alleviation of pressure on secondary care, enhance patient access and convenience, and provide preventative care and early detection. In support of this, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew Taylor, presented at the recent NHS Confed Expo 2024, emphasising that the NHS vision needs to be matched by action. By bringing healthcare support to patients and making it more widely available, primary care can continue to ‘provide a massive increase in appointments and activity while consuming a smaller share of the health budget.’

Currently Primary Eyecare Services collaborates with 29 ICBs within some capacity of our services across the NHS England, yet eye care and optometry often doesn’t receive the attention deserved at a larger scale. Although optometry is being recognised as an area for improvement, Chief Executive, Dharmesh Patel addressed Claire Fuller, National Medical Director for Primary Care at the recent NHS Confed Expo 2024. He emphasised two essential needs: recognition and a method to share best practices across the NHS, “along with these needs, our greatest challenge is avoiding duplication of work across England NHS: how can we achieve this?”

In response, Claire Fuller acknowledged that optometry is often overlooked and stressed the importance of its recognition and the expansion of best practices throughout NHS England without duplicating efforts. She also agrees to the opportunity for the NHS England Medical Directorate to support great distributed leadership nationally and regionally to capitalise on the opportunity in optometry.

 

It is unquestionable that the outcome of the election will impact the future of the NHS. As an NHS-funded non-for-profit organisation, we are committed to continuing to pay a valuable role within the primary care system.

To read more about uncovering optometry’s valuable role within the NHS, click here.