Getting involved in enhanced services

The Government's principal emphases are improving quality of care and reducing the inequalities in care delivery which people experience, whether due to where they live, their social status, age, sex, ethnicity, disability or disease. 

Optometrists will increasingly provide a structured clinical service, working with other practitioners from different disciplines, to meet specified health care objectives.  The benefits of a structured team approach should include:

• seamless patient care across the boundaries between primary, community, and secondary (hospital) areas of the health service, social services and the voluntary sector;
• an effective balance between prevention and treatment;
• an effective balance between primary, community and hospital-based care, with care being delivered in the most suitable setting;
• better collaboration between health professionals and managers;
• more effective use of resources;
• improvements in the quality of care;
• improved access to care.

To see how how you can get involved in the provision of enhanced services, click on the pdf files on the bottom of this page.

Transparency in the provision of enhanced services

The Association of Optometrists, the College of Optometrists and the Federation of Ophthalmic and Dispensing Opticians issued joint advice in December 2004 for LOCs/AOCs and primary care organisations on how enhanced service contracts can be made more transparent, thus facilitating agreements  which have the full support  of the local profession. This would help to avoid any misleading impressions of claimed superiority, should schemes be limited to specific practices.  The advice can be found in the pdf document at the bottom of this page.